Limbert Umbrella Stand part 2, bottoms up.

Well I had come up with a way to fit the bottom along with the copper drip pan, but as they say about the best laid plans....
I did have some nice copper left over, but apparently I had used it last spring to make a guard for my bluebird house to keep the local snakes and rats out. What I had left was not wide enough to suit the purpose. Luckily, I had some copper left over from a clock face I made, this is much thinner and not good enough for a drip pan, however I could make a wood bottom and cover it in this thinner copper after its finished. From the original photos I decided that the bottom should be half way between the two cutouts. This came out to 3 inches above the base of the side. I installed the dado blade into my tablesaw at a width of 3/4 of an inch and set it at 4 degrees and 1/4 inch at the lowest. I moved my fence over to the left side of the blade and ran all four sides through.

Before I left the shop the other day I glued up a piece for the bottom, today I cut it at 10 1/4 inches square. I didn't think sending this small piece through the planer was a good idea so I got out my trusty Stanley No. 4 and took a few swipes across the board until it fit snugly but not tightly. Sometimes a well tuned hand plane works faster, and better, that a planer. The added plus is that I can keep listening to Woodtalk while I'm doing it.

The bottom slid nicely into the dado's, with just a little whack from a small dead blow hammer it fit perfectly.

I added the other two sides and checked the fit of the miters along the length. The fit was good and the bottom fit well, so one final sanding of the inside and it was time to glue it up. With a good covering of glue along the miters and inside the dado's I slipped the sides on one at a time making sure that the bottom was centered in the dado.



With some blue tape around the feet and the middle I stood up the umbrella stand. I used two 90 degree clamping blocks at the top to insure squareness and added a few clamps to hold the joints tight while the glue dried. Then I added a few more clamps, then a few more.... I wasn't really pulling the joints together as much as holding the sides tight so the opposing clamps didn't push them out.







I left it to dry overnight and this morning removed the clamps and gave the outside a good sanding to 150 grit with a random orbital sander and then touched up the edges with a sanding block also using 150 grit. The results were fantastic, I am really happy about how this is coming along. If you look at the picture below you can see inside the cutouts to the bottom. I think that I will use the thin copper to cover it after I'm done finishing it.