It finally came time to make a new stool for the shed as my old one is getting more unstable. We have had it for more than 25 years and it was secondhand then!
I sorted a few pieces out, legs and stretchers from an old science desk from Corby, probably more than I will need here. The seat will be made from a piece of old forlornly sitting unloved in the corner of the shed.
As you can see, the old wood cleans up nicely to reveal some good beech. This is all I will need for the frame of the stool.
Often called "stupid marks". The tops of the legs get laid out and marked up. As they will not be cut square it is important that I can put the back together in the correct orientation.
Set a sliding bevel gauge to around 4 degrees, and keep it set for the whole project. I used that to set the mitre saw as well. Mark up the tops of the legs.
Sliding dovetails cut with a router will connect the tops of legs. It is very reassuring to put them back together and find they all match.
The tenons get cut on my jig. Leave the router set at the same depth as the sockets and adjust the fence until we get a nice snug fit. Cut part of the tenon back as the socket is not the full width of the rail.
Ease the edges with a block plane. As you can see I am using the Lie Nielson Automatic Block Plane in handsfree mode.
Dry fit
Start chopping out the mortices for the bottom stretchers. Not sure why I decided to do these by hand instead of using a router, much more satisfying though.
The stretchers were cut to length on the mitre saw (which I had set up earlier to the correct angle). Tenons cut on the ends using the normal method in the jig. I cut them back using the bandsaw.
Time to trim the legs. The top end is cut off but I saved the offcut so that I could remark the leg. I now mark up and cut the bottom of the legs ensuring that the cuts a parallel to the top ones.
The faces of the legs get a quick planing to remove the layout marks and the inside corner gets eased using that block plane again.
The frame glued up. Dovetails look OK as well.
The seat is made from a piece of oak. Unfortunately it was not quite wide enough so I had to glue two other pieces, one each side to it. Even now it will still be a little smaller than I would like but it's OK.
To get a little bit of dishing on the seat, I drew some concentric circles which I then roughed out with a router starting from the middle and working out raising the cutter as I went. The result is a bit rough but a sander and some coarse paper cleaned it up.
A coat of boiled linseed oil should give it some protection.
There we go. One new stool.
Project finished. Should be very useful and is certainly a lot more stable than the old one. Hope you enjoyed the story.
Bob
I sorted a few pieces out, legs and stretchers from an old science desk from Corby, probably more than I will need here. The seat will be made from a piece of old forlornly sitting unloved in the corner of the shed.
As you can see, the old wood cleans up nicely to reveal some good beech. This is all I will need for the frame of the stool.
Often called "stupid marks". The tops of the legs get laid out and marked up. As they will not be cut square it is important that I can put the back together in the correct orientation.
Set a sliding bevel gauge to around 4 degrees, and keep it set for the whole project. I used that to set the mitre saw as well. Mark up the tops of the legs.
Sliding dovetails cut with a router will connect the tops of legs. It is very reassuring to put them back together and find they all match.
The tenons get cut on my jig. Leave the router set at the same depth as the sockets and adjust the fence until we get a nice snug fit. Cut part of the tenon back as the socket is not the full width of the rail.
Ease the edges with a block plane. As you can see I am using the Lie Nielson Automatic Block Plane in handsfree mode.
Dry fit
Start chopping out the mortices for the bottom stretchers. Not sure why I decided to do these by hand instead of using a router, much more satisfying though.
The stretchers were cut to length on the mitre saw (which I had set up earlier to the correct angle). Tenons cut on the ends using the normal method in the jig. I cut them back using the bandsaw.
Time to trim the legs. The top end is cut off but I saved the offcut so that I could remark the leg. I now mark up and cut the bottom of the legs ensuring that the cuts a parallel to the top ones.
The faces of the legs get a quick planing to remove the layout marks and the inside corner gets eased using that block plane again.
The frame glued up. Dovetails look OK as well.
The seat is made from a piece of oak. Unfortunately it was not quite wide enough so I had to glue two other pieces, one each side to it. Even now it will still be a little smaller than I would like but it's OK.
To get a little bit of dishing on the seat, I drew some concentric circles which I then roughed out with a router starting from the middle and working out raising the cutter as I went. The result is a bit rough but a sander and some coarse paper cleaned it up.
A coat of boiled linseed oil should give it some protection.
There we go. One new stool.
Project finished. Should be very useful and is certainly a lot more stable than the old one. Hope you enjoyed the story.
Bob
