Ultimate Rotating Xmas Tree Stand

Years ago, I came up with Christmas Tree stand that rotates - it's a turntable for a Xmas tree! Check out this video - cool, right? Well it's very easy to build - about 1 hr and I used scrap wood I had in the garage.

My motivation was to be able to get to the other side of the tree to decorate it. It was difficult to get to the part of the tree that was facing the window in our living room. I had seen rotating trees- that would rotate on a motor continuously, but I just needed something simple to speed the setup and decorating process. Now I can add lights standing in one place and feed them onto the tree very quickly. Here is what the turntable looks like with the tree stand on it.

Here's how to make one:

1. You will nee a 2 - 2x4's, 3 - 3' sqaure sheets of plywood, 4 1.5" # 8 sheet metal screws and a bunch of deck screws (8 - 3", 8- 1.5"), turntable (ball-bearing) mechanism from Home Depot (they're in the Hardware isle)

2. Figure out the dimensions of your stand - my tree is fake and comes with a metal tube stand - this stand fits on top of the turntable. If you have a live tree, it's stand would rest on the turntable too. Mine worked out to be about 3' square. My tree weighs about 150 lbs.

3. Make a frame with the 2 x 4's - here's what mine looks like. Then attach a piece of plywood to the top. This is the base.

4. Now attach the turntable mechanism to another piece of plywood that is about 1/3rd the size of the base - I attached this with the sheet metal screws. I filed off the tips so they wouldn't touch the mating mechanism and cause it not to turn. Here's the challange - you have to mark, attach and dissassemble (Stephanie - get it? From that movie, remember?) the rotating table part. There are access holes in the turntable mechanism so you can mark holes for the screws. Here are some picts. After you dissasemble this top piece of plywood you can then attached the turntable mechanism to the base, then re-attach the top. Here is the intermediate piece of plywood attached to the turntable mechanism:

Here is the turntable mechanism attached to the base - with 4 deck screws. Now you can re-attached the intermediate piece of plywood.

Then attach another piece of plywood that is the top of the turntable.

Notice I added blocks (i just glued them on) with holes to accomdate the stand - you need a way to hold the stand in place so it doesn't slide off when you turn the whole tree. Here's a close up.

That's it your done. Here's a pict of the tree on stand so you can get an idea of scale - it's a 9' tree.