LeeWay Workshop -Banana Hanger

LeeWay Workshop

January 05, 2009

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Wooden Banana Caddy
	This project was made using a bandsaw, a table saw, a drill, a hand plane, a sander and a sharp carving knife. It is fairly easy to do. A banana stand also helps keep the fruit from bruising and turning black prematurely.
There are 2 difficult steps. With the leaf portion. You can use 3/4" or 1" stock. Before bandsawing, it needs to be thinned on the outside edges. I clamped the stock that I was going to use for the leaf in a raised panel jig. This is simply a jig with hinges that rides along the rip fence of your table saw. It is mostly used for making door panels and such. I leave about 3/8" stock on the outside edge and cut off to within 1/2" of the middle of the stock.. When both sides are cut, you will have something that resembles a roof when veiwed from the end. You can then bandsaw the pattern of the leaf. You can also move the splits in the leaf to remove any imperfections or nail holes in your stock.

I used 1 1/2" stock for the banana. When you bandsaw the banana, after you cut the initial pattern out, you need to move your bandsaw table to 45 degrees. Then you cut about 3/8" off of all 4 edges. Simple if you just think about how a banana looks. I drilled the 3/8" holes by eye. Use a small pilot hole first. Drill about 3/4" deep. The bottom is simply a 3/8" dowel.

Now for the stem. You just follow the pattern below and cut out the stock. Then you have to carve one end to become round to fit the top hole. Round off the corners to your desire. Positioning isn't all the critical. I've made several of these and no two came out the same, but they all worked.

Click on the picture of the pattern to get the full size printable version. Print out at 300 DPI. Check the graph for proper size. Even close to 8.5" by 11" will be good enough. You can also fudge or change up the dimensions to suit your scrap material.

I clamped the leaf to the workbench and then used a hand plane to round over the top and the end of the leaf. Sanding came next. Then glue it together, finish of your choice and viola. One banana stand.