How to Make a Cedar Shim Basket

[Fallan]

Hi everyone, I shared this with someone about 8 months ago, and it's such a simple, fun project, I thought I'd repost it.

It's a fun quick project you can even do with kids of about 6 or 7 or older...as long as you use the drill and the saw.

Here's the post with a few additions to make it more clear...

Cedar Shim Baskets
Hi everyone, over 10 years ago I made several cedar shim baskets that are still 100% intact, no rotting and good drainage.

I bought a pack of cedar shims used by carpenters at Home Depot, about $2.00 for 100 or so shims. The shims taper from about 3/8 of an inch to 1/8 of an inch and are packed in a bundle of alternating shims so that they stack up evenly.

I found a four wire twisted hook designed for hagning baskets, also at Home Depot....with a hook at one end like a clothes hanger has, and 12-20 inch straight wires, four of them.

I simply cut the shims to the length of the basket that I wanted (about 8 inches or so), stacked them like a "log cabin" design so that the tapering ends were opposite of each other.

First I laid two down, parallel and about 8 inches apart. The next two were laid perpendicular to these, to form the top edge and bottom edge. This is the first layer.

Then I continued to layer the shims, alternating the tapered ends with each layer.

When the basket was about 3-4 inches high, I simply drilled a hole straight down through each of the four corners (I think I had to remove a few layers to continue drilling the hole all the way to the bottom)

I fed the wires from teh basket hanger through the four drilled holes (you'll need to separate the four strands of the basket hanger, and the turned the end poking through the bottom of the basket with round nosed pliers to make a blunt end that would not pull through the holes.

I took extra shims and slid them between the bottom two slats to make a bottom for the basket...you can adjust the width between them.

like I said, this was over 10 years ago and they still look and work great.

[Anton]

I posted a similar project recently http://www.orchidgeeks.com/forum/int...n-project.html showing pictures with step by step instructions.

[Fallan]

Nice pictures! I do have pictures of mine but they are pre-digital. Maybe someday I will upload them.

[Anton]

You need a scanner with facilities to scan slides.
Makes life a lot easier.

I make mine out of Australian Oak, it's a nice hardwood which is relatively easy to work with.

Love the smell of freshly sanded Cedar, but I find it a bit too soft to work with.

[Vivienne]

Thanks Fallan and Anton - great little project to try!

[HotPot]

you know a picture is worth a thousand....