Remix “Tensegrity” “Floating Table” As a Planter

A while ago I saw on here and on Youtube some tensegrity floating table things. I had some thoughts … I thought it was awesome. There is a but. I didn’t know about the usefulness, so I wanted to make something that you would have in your place and show off with it, but something you would have anyway. A Planter seemed like a good choice. It doesn’t bother a plant if it’s home is a little wiggly and maybe it would appreciate the coolness of it.
Also The planter would only have to hold a moderate and pretty much constant load. Also I have planters standing around anyway, so the tensegrity part wouldn’t take additional space.

There are different tensegrity concepts out there but this is pretty stable and conservative. It works by having the inner cable take all the load from the upper part and the outer strings just prevent tipping over. To confuse the viewer I chose the Inner cable to be as this as possible, without hiding it and took some biggle ropes for the outer cables, as if the forces are reversed and the outer cables had to bear all the load.

This Project was, as I said inspired by a bunch of others, here to mention a the two, that impressed me the most:

The first I saw

Here the Instructable, that motivated me experimenting with the concept

Step 1: Down Part

I had some pieces of cherry wood and so I turned them in a way that I could later carve some loops and a post. See the first picture above! The red part was already cut out after turning and the green part was yet to be cut out. So I first turned the underside of the piece and then I screwed it on a faceplate from the lathe. The resulting holes were later covered by small felt feet. After Turning I cut, carved and filed everything unnecessary away. It's just optics, try to get nice organic flowing curves.

Step 2: Upper Part

The actual planter worked almost the same. I took the same cherry wood. See the first picture above! The red part was already cut out after turning and the green part was yet to be cut out. First I turned the inside of the planter (make sure you have an inner pot in an appropriate size). After that I could chuck it up from the inside and continued with the outside. After Turning I cut, carved and filed everything unnecessary away. It's just optics, try to get nice organic flowing curves.

Step 3: Steel “hooks”

I wanted a slender and stable bit where the Inner cable can attach to and I like the material mix. So I took an 8mm Stainless round stock and bend (while red hot) it in a shape that would look like an extension of the wooden parts and so that it would roughly end in the middle of each piece of wood.

The Inner wire can be attached in different ways; examples:

Cutting a small rim on the Stainless and crimping a loop in the wire

Drill a hole in the stainless and put a grub screw in there

Put a knott in it Maybe soldering would also work

I used fishing wire, because it’s flexible, strong and thin. I didn’t use the invisible plastic stuff, because I don’t like how that looks. I used 2 part epoxy to glue the Stainless rod in the wooden parts. In 30 mm deep holes I drilled beforehand.

Step 4: Cotton Rope “Crimp”

You can also just but a knot in the cotton wire to attach them.

I used 4mm cotton “rope”. I used Brass tube as crimps. I made loops to attach it to the hooks on the top part of the planter. It's useful to be able to adjust the rope, so I made, for the loop on the down part, small brass tubes (6mm inner 12mm outer) that can squeeze on the rope by use of M4 grub screws. I didn’t plan them and I didn’t make a drawing …. If anyone really want/needs one I can make one, just hit me up!

Step 5: Finishing

For the outside I used once an oil and wax finish and once shellac, I like both. Oh jeah… a lot of sanding! On the Inside I want to try some really water resistant finish like “Kelterlack”, but with these I just but a watertight container on the Inside and then put a container for plants with draining holes inside that… that way I don’t have to worry about water destroying the wood over time.

If you have any questions at all, just let me know, I hope you liked this instructable, bye...