Grow light stand build

[JoeWilson]

Here’s something I made this winter. I wanted to try and integrate a grow light into a plant stand. Originally, it was going to be something box with tube lights, but then my wife was like “why don’t you make it a circle?” and I remembered I know how to use a lathe. In retrospect, I could have made it a little less chunky, but I tend to over-engineer things and wasn’t sure what kind of bulb I was going to use (some of the high-powered grow bulbs are pretty heavy).

Walnut and boxelder. The tree is a Bahama Berry (fresh from the nursery, and I haven’t done much with it since). I’ll post the build photos in another comment.

 

[JoeWilson]

The base started from a slab of walnut that I had been air-drying for a few years.


It was too thick for my router jig, so I had to knock the high spots down with an electric planer.


One side flat on the router jig. It was going on the lath so I didn't need to worry about making the other side flat, it would get trued up when I turned it.



Roughly cut into a circle on the bandsaw, so I didn't have to remove as much material on the lathe.


Roughly turned and test-fitted the metal tray. The tray is there so I can water in the stand and not worry about the wood getting damaged.



Final shape done.



The lamp shade was made from a block of boxelder sandwiched between two chunks of walnut - scraps from the slab I used for the base. I knocked the corners off on the table size to get it closer to a cylinder.



Turning a perfect cylinder on a wood lathe is harder than it looks. I ended up fine-tuning the shape with a straight edge and sandpaper. I forgot to take photos of the hollowing out process, but that's what I did next - carved out the inside so the light bulb would fit.


Cutting a notch to align with the arm.





The arm had to take a decent amount of weight, so I used a wedged mortise and tenon. The mortise was hand-chopped, the tenon cut on the bandsaw. I got lazy and used a domino to attach the short part of the arm to the lampshade.

More photos in the next comment.

 

[JoeWilson]

Attaching the arm to the base was tricky. I used epoxy, so I had plenty of open time to make sure it was plumb/level. Then I added a couple of dowels after the fact for strength.


I routed a channel for the wire to sit up, but needed a nice way to terminate it, so out came the carving tools.


A copious amount of sanding later, and I was done. Here's what it looked like with the first coat of linseed oil applied.