£2.50 stool

[bobscarle]

I needed a couple of stools, one for my office and one for the shed. I took Shultzy over to Corby to visit the Aladins Cave that is Sarah's warehouse. There I found two table bases, slightly larger than the science tables that have been selling so well.

The joints were all mortise and tenon which were pegged, not glued, together. We drilled the pegs out and knocked the frames apart to get them home. This is one frame dismantled but not cleaned up. You also get a load of free chewing gum with it!

Tatty but good wood ready to be cleaned up and used. The frame is made from solid beech and once cut down and planed up was lovely to work with. So this is the result. The first of two stools going into the office to replace a very old and wobbly one. I applied two coats of danish oil for the finish.

Not at all bad for the princely sum of £2.50. A fairly simple stool but one which serves a useful purpose and I have been able to reuse wood that otherwise may have been wasted. A worthwhile project all round.

Sorry, but I did not do any WIP pictures. I do, however have another one to make and if there is any interest I will document that one.

 

[OPJ]

Very nicely done; good use of otherwise unappreciated timber!

You've got an excellent shine from the Danish Oil there, must have required a lot of buffing?

I, for one, would be interested to see how you go about making the second one as I could do with something similar for my morticer - so I don't have to sit on the bin anymore! :wink:

 

[Paul.J]

Very nice Bob
How about doing some turned legs on the next one

 

[Woodmagnet]

The job's a good'un Bob. :wink:

 

[Shultzy]

Nice stool Bob, my wood is still up against the wall awaiting inspiration.

 

[PowerTool]

Excellent stool - and always nice to see good timber being re-used

Andrew

 

[George_N]

Is it a sign of age when we sit around discussing our stools?

I'll get me coat

 

[bobscarle]

Thank you all for your kind comments. It does give me a lot of pleasure making something useful, no matter how simple, from scrap wood. I am really pleased with the result and I would be happy to document fully the process when I make the next one.

Shultzy, my inspiration came from realising just how wobbly and unstable my old stool had become. It was simply a case of getting this one done before it fell apart.

Paul, turned legs? I am not sure I am up to that yet. Not a problem doing one, but getting four to match

Bob

 

[9fingers]

Just in case anyone else is after benches from Sarah. I had an email from her the other day saying she was not selling any more benches as her boss had other ideas for them.

Bob

 

[OPJ]

That's a shame. Perhaps he's beginning to see the true value to these benches after the interest generated on this forum alone. Either that, or he wants a lethal dose of firewood for the log burner at home. :wink:

 

[bobscarle]

That really is a shame. After making this stool I had planned to go back and get some more bases. Looks like I might have to re-think.

Bob

 

[9fingers]

Bob,

'Scuse me if this is a dumb question but when making M&T joints in legs which are not a 90 degees to the rails such as in your stool, is it normal to make the mortise parallel to the rail or perpendicular to the leg surface.

I think I've seen Norm do the latter but can't be sure.

Also what is a typical angle for stool legs. I fancy making one for the workshop. I was going to buy one of Sarahs but now I'm not collecting benchtops any more - I still need a stool or maybe two.

TIA

Bob - another one!

 

[bobscarle]

Bob - The other one.

The rails are joined to the legs using mortise and tenon joints as you said. I gave the matter of the angle some thought and realised that either the mortise could be at an angle or the tenon could. Without knowing the relative merits of each, I decided to make the mortises 90 degrees to the legs (saves making a jig) and angle the tenon.

The layout of the tenon is the same for a 90 degree joint except that I used a sliding bevel gauge instead of a square, which I had set to about 4 degrees. I marked the shoulder line and the length of the tenon at this angle but marked the top and bottom cuts at 90 degrees to the end. This has the effect of angling the tenon up slightly. I do not know if this is the best way of doing it, no doubt somebody will tell me if not, but it is the method I chose.

Why did I use 4 degrees? I looked long and hard on the web to find a definitive answer as to the angle of the legs. In the end I found one plan and two actual stools. I worked the angle out with a bit of trig and they all came to around 4 degrees. The only other place I found any mention of angles was on Philly's site, where he makes a stool for his workshop. He, however, uses 10 and 13 degree angles which I did not think would look right for my stool.

I hope this makes sense. Please let me know if not.

Bob - This one

 

[9fingers]

Thanks Bob

Yes that is completely clear. I'm guessing that using 4 degrees or so will make the base area about the same as the overall area of the seat which will be plenty to be stable.

I suppose the best tool for the compound 4 +4 degree cuts on the ends of the legs is will be a compound mitre saw once I've marked out the position of the mortises that is!

I've got some time off over Easter so I'll probably make a start then.

Thanks Again

Bob

 

[Benchwayze]

Bob - The other one.

The rails are joined to the legs using mortise and tenon joints as you said. I gave the matter of the angle some thought and realised that either the mortise could be at an angle or the tenon could. Without knowing the relative merits of each, I decided to make the mortises 90 degrees to the legs (saves making a jig) and angle the tenon.
Bob - This one

I guess it's a heads or tails thing Bob!

I might have used a brace and bit, to remove the mortice waste at the right angle, finishing the mortice with a chisel. If I was using a drill stand, I would probably cut a nice wedge of hardwood, to the right taper; it is a jig of sorts, but it takes seconds on the bandsaw! Especially so if I was making a run of the stools. This also means you could use a full-width tenon of course.

That's a nice job either way and it reminds me, I need a guitar-stool. Pity I can't got to Corby now!

Regards
John ccasion5:

 

[wizer]

Made this 'jig' up for this same purpose. YOu move the block of wood in or out to get the angle, then clamp it.

 

[bobscarle]

Thanks for all the help. It is not the making of the jig that put me off, its just that doing it the way I did, I didn't have to make one! I have a mortising machine and simply used that in the normal way. As I said before I don't know whether the way I did it was the right way or even the best way. Like John said, its a heads or tails thing, and me being a lazy "£$%^&" I chose tails.

Bob