Free Plan: Mission Plant Stand
Four posts, six slats, and one 1/8-inch offset that decides whether they line up.
Free download. No signup required.
- Full 1909 cut list
- Movement-safe top attachment
- Pocket-hole shortcut included
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Download didn't start? Get the plan here.The stand builds in a corner. The corner decides what gets built after it.
- A layout guide for a one- or two-car garage or a basement: which tools to buy in what order, and where each one stands so the work flows in one direction.
- What to read first: the layout chapter. Draw the space on graph paper and put the saw where an eight-foot board can pass it, before another machine goes in.
- A digital guide sold through ClickBank, with a 60-day refund window stated on the vendor's page.
Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
A stand from four posts, six rails, six slats and a small shelf — big enough to earn a corner, small enough to build from offcuts. The 1909 design carries the weight.
The plan walks through the cut list, the rail and slat spacing, and a movement-safe way to fasten the 15-inch top so it does not crack across the seasons. The one habit worth stealing from it: cut all four posts in a single setup so the legs match and the top sits flat.
If mortises are not in your toolbox yet, the pocket-hole shortcut builds the same stand from the back, hidden from view.
Project at a Glance
- Difficulty
- Intermediate (two slatted side assemblies, mortises at two depths)
- Main materials
- Quarter-sawn white oak — four 1-1/4 x 1-1/4 x 20 inch posts, six rails, six slats, one 6 x 10 inch shelf, one 15-1/2 inch top, brads and screws, weathered-oak stain and black wax
- Build time
- 3-4 shop days, plus finish
- Tools needed
- Mortising tools, miter or table saw, drill, clamps, square, scraper, sander
- Source
- Popular Mechanics, 1909 (public domain)
Before you glue the legs:
Cut all four posts in one setup — stacked or against a single stop block — so every leg is exactly the same length. If one post runs a sixteenth long, the top rocks, and no amount of sanding at the end quietly fixes it.
A stand like this is how furniture building starts: a handful of parts, careful layout, a result that goes straight into the room. It is also a project you can build from offcuts in a corner of a garage.
What decides whether the next one gets built in that corner is usually the corner itself — where the saw stands, where the lumber lives, and how much of the floor you can actually work on.
What the guide actually covers
The eight-foot test
Take an eight-foot board from where the lumber is stored, run it through the saw, and set the offcut down. If you had to move something, open a door or turn the board sideways to get it in, the shop is filled, not laid out. A stand like this builds fine in a filled shop. The piece after it usually does not.
The guide covers layout for a one- or two-car garage or a basement, the order the tools go in, and the parts tool reviews skip: lighting, dust, noise and where the lumber lives. It won't tell you which brand to buy, only where the tool belongs.
Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Also worth a look: the technique layer
Woodworking Secrets is a printed book on layout, cutting, joinery and finishing, the part a plan leaves out. The publisher sends it at no charge and you cover the shipping. It ships to US addresses. On the order page there is a box for a trial membership that is already ticked — untick it if you only want the book.
See the book →