suggestions on making a tower

Hi I think I may have posted this already but not used to the site and cant find it so.....
I would love to make a tower for our cat. they are too costly for us for now, we have lots of tools and tons of scrap wood here to work with. I would love any ideas on making my own, what kind of matls to use, where to find the round shapes so many seem to have etc! Also it seems the base might have to be really of big to keep it stable with such a big cat climbing on it. I also need to make a scratch post asap as my couch is taking a beating. So far he hasn't been interesting in any scratching things I have. How tall ought a post be for an 19 lb cat??
Any one have cats that like those hammocks? Thanks!!

I had started a thread where I posted some info about the towers that we have made:
http://www.maine-coon-forum.info/mai...ine-coons.html

Base weight is definitely an issue, as the boys will take a running leap at them. The older tube actually has a butcher block table top (sold to make furniture) as its base. It will wobble if the boys leap at it at high speed, but it has not tipped over. The new one has a pine (table) base that did not seem heavy enough, so I placed a container (old plastic kitty litter pail) full of sand in its base. It barely budges even with 20lbs flying onto it.

The first one was actually built as a scratching post for our MC mix male, since he was pulling over every scratching post we could find or they simply were not tall enough, and he was also starting to try out some of the furniture.

You can see the two boys enjoying both tubes here:
Picasa Web Albums - Norman Carver - Cats 2010
(there are six photos in the sequence; the bigger boy is on the smaller tube!)

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Originally Posted by Dianne

I would love to make a tower for our cat. they are too costly for us for now, we have lots of tools and tons of scrap wood here to work with. I would love any ideas on making my own, what kind of matls to use, where to find the round shapes so many seem to have etc!

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I hope these pictures will give a fair idea of what I built. Big. Heavy. (Too big and too heavy -- I'm planning on taking it apart and building a few smaller units.) But it is sturdy! :rofl:

I thought up the design myself, drew it up on paper to make sure it was thought out correctly, and then I built it. It is mostly built of ½" (half-inch) plywood (I'm pretty sure about the thickness, but it might be a little thicker). The smaller supports are 2"×2" (which, in the U.S., means they are really 1.5" × 1.5") wrapped in sisal rope. The big pole is (unfortunately) solid wood that I got as scrap from a lumberyard. It is also wrapped in sisal rope. The carpet I bought, pretty much the cheapest I could find at a home improvement store.

The thing is well over 100 pounds in weight and the uppermost platform on top of the big pole is almost seven feet above the floor. The main 'house' part has an entrance on the far side (sorry, no pics), an opening on the first ledge (best seen in pics 2 & 3), another level inside which cannot be seen from the outside, and then opens on the ledge which is about five feet above the floor. There is an additional quarter-circle which serves like a roof for the inside area as well as another place to sprawl.

If I can answer any other questions, just ask. Sorry, I no longer have the paper with the plans.

Wow! I am hoping to get a friend to help us put something together very soon......Its really fun seeing all the different designs people have come up with.