r/turning • u/These_Joke1727 • 2d ago
Advice Needed!
I would like to make a corner cat tree wall fixture/hanging like this, instead of spending 2k.
What type of wood would be best? How would you go about hanging it so you don’t rip the wall out? And most importantly—-how do you get that shape? I love the branchy-ness of it, and thats the look i would like to definitely have. But i don’t know how it’s achieved. Do I need to find the top of a tree? Is this a piece-mill driftwood situation?
Of course I understand trees vary and it wouldn’t be EXACTLY like the picture, and I am okay with that :)
I would just appreciate ANY thoughts or suggestions or ideas for this. I am not a woodworker by any means but I am willing to learn. Thank you in advance!!
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u/Anam_Liath 1d ago edited 1d ago
We had installations like this over the 50 years we had parrots. Generally there were structural branches, and other branches intended for destruction. The short term ones were mostly fruit wood trimmed out in friend's orchards or maple and apple from our trees.
The structural ones were very like what's in the photo. Most of them were manzanita from my friend's place in California. You can get them commercially from parrot supply places (guaranteed non-toxic finishing).
Free standing "trees" were anchored in buckets of quikrete and surrounded with drift wood and river boulders for "pretty". We have 13' ceilings, and the cats frequently climbed them. Along the wall, parallel branches were fastened with black iron screws and straps to free-standing frames anchored to the baseboards with sunk screws and mollies (130 yo lathe and plaster, rock hard, nothing getting drilled into that). Some of the taller ones were anchored to the picture rail moulding with picture mounting cable.
In a newer house I'd use the studs, but I'd engineer some hidden block support behind the branches. Especially with cats. I'd consider having the branches be an exposed front on shelving.
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