Lattice Table. A Twisted Tale

Teak Lattice Table

This lattice table is one outcome from a rabbit hole I fell down researching Yurts. I actually made my own small prototype Yurt including a curved door, lattice sides, tarp walls and roof.  Just to educate myself on the intricacies and details of Yurt construction. I still have all the component parts, although they are destined for recycling or upscaling.

The bending potential of wood when cut into thin strips is a property not often taken advantage of in furniture design. A cylinder tube made of latticed strips is surprisingly strong. If the intersections are single screws then that lattice tube can be opened up to a flat circular strip rope, or closed down to a twisted pole. Add something to lock the geometry such as a top and you have a small table.  Change the size of the circular top and the lattice will adjust to fit it. As the lattice will only touch the top perimeter where the ends meet the top shape could be a 10 sided (or 12 or 14 sided) polygon. 

This lattice table has an added spinning top. It has been used as a plant stand to sit next to a window or glass paned door.  Vining plants can drape over the edge to weave through the lattice if they want to. As plants tend to grow toward the window/sun it helps to rotate them a little every day to keep the plants balanced.  

Sub Top

The top is teak veneered plywood.  A scrap I had.  The lattice strips are slices of a teak board.  Stainless steel nuts and bolts pin every intersection of the strips.  At the top the lattice screws into the edge of the sub top.  A lazy susan bearing between the top and the sub top allows the top to spin.  A single bolt through the sub top into a threaded insert in the bottom of the spinning top holds the tops together.  

For more interesting lattice shapes the hole spacing can be varied. The hole spacing of inside strips should actually be slightly closer together compared to outside strips. Their circumference is slightly smaller than the outer circumference. Pi times diameter.  For a 1/8" difference between inner and outer strips the circumference varies 0.785".  End hole to end hole distance of the inner strips of a 12 strip (6 inner and 6 outer)  lattice would be close to 1/4" shorter than of the outer strips. If the hole spacing is precisely done (CNC cut perhaps) then when assembling the lattice it would naturally start curving into a cylinder. 

I made a production run of a plant stand versions using 3mm baltic birch plywood as the strips and a painted MDF top held on by snaps. As the lattice base can expand or contract I offered versions with 8", 10", or 12" tops using the same base. A plant stand that could grow with your plants. The top of the lattice had snaps attached with pop rivets.  

4D

Comments welcomed and appreciated.