A few pieces of advice on making a stool?

[BearTricks]

The girlfriend needs a new stool to sit on while sewing. She was using an old carpenters bench/stool type thing that my dad built twenty or so years ago and that Iiberated from my mums garage when I moved out. Unfortunately for my girlfriend I decided to put it back to its original use a while ago.

I have a hefty slab of pear that should be more than big enough. I plan to make the whole thing on the lathe - round seat, turned legs. The problem is that the pear has a long, thin section of internal bark. I thought about not using this but then I realised that if I could somehow use the section with the bark, I can get a good amount of bowl and spindle blanks out of the clean wood.

Is it possible to harden the internal bark so that the seat can be turned easily and safely? I'd imagine that impregnating it with some sort of epoxy would be the solution. If I did this, would I be able to finish the final piece without there being an ugly discrepancy between the bark and the rest of the wood?

I don't think this will be the most difficult project I have undertaken but I have never made a seat before so is there anything I need to know about making one? Particularly to do with comfort, for example is a concave or convex stool better? Etc.

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[Racers]

The tractor style seats are comfortable I made two for my kitchen, all hand made apart from the stretcher holes.

I did try the seats several times as I was carving them from green oak, and measured the height of the stretcher so it was comfortable.
Its worth mocking up and measuring it up for comfort.

21st March by Pete Maddex, on Flickr

Epoxy should work depending on if you can get it all the way through the crack.

Pete

 

[SlowSteve]

In terms of stabilisation - dry the wood and then run in layers of celluose dope mixed with cellulouse thinners - start off very very thin - maybe 5 parts thinners to one part dope - and then thicken up from there.

For the best results doing it under a vacuam gives some very impressive results - it sucks right deep into the heart of the wood - but getting a vac bagging system just for this one job seems to be a bit OTT. If you have anyone who makes a lot of laminates, or builds a lot of model areoplanes then it could be they have the gear already.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Nice seat Pete.

The most memorable advice on designing a chair seat I found in Fine Woodworking - sit on the board with a pencil to hand, and draw round your backside ! And concave is best, because your backside is convex, and you want to spread the pressure more evenly.

 

[MusicMan]

I can just envisage this.

"Darling, I want to measure your backside"

"Why? Does it look big on this stool?"

 

[BearTricks]

The tractor style seats are comfortable I made two for my kitchen, all hand made apart from the stretcher holes.

I did try the seats several times as I was carving them from green oak, and measured the height of the stretcher so it was comfortable.
Its worth mocking up and measuring it up for comfort.

21st March by Pete Maddex, on Flickr

Epoxy should work depending on if you can get it all the way through the crack.

Pete

Nice seat. What's the best way to cut a mortise in a round leg like that with hand tools?

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[Racers]

Brace and bit, the length will help you maintain the angle while you drill, you will need a couple of bevel gauges a square or two a V shaped cradle to hold the leg in.
I made a travisher to hollow the seat and a tapered ream and taper cutter for the leg mortice in the seat, but you can get by with straight ones.

Pete

p.s. have a look at this series of videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej4DU-G ... WgiZAl37lx

 

[Austinisgreat]

I can just envisage this.

"Darling, I want to measure your backside"

"Why? Does it look big on this stool?"

Does my bum look big in this?

Honest answer irrelevent :shock: (hammer)

Cheers

Andrew

 

[Austinisgreat]

Sorry @ Pete Maddox for my flippancy whilst you were being helpful

 

[Racers]

Sorry @ Pete Maddox for my flippancy whilst you were being helpful

No problem, but you did get my name wrong :wink:

Pete

 

[BearTricks]

Right, got the requisite equipment. Results to follow shortly.

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[chipmunk]

I'd be tempted to splay the legs a bit rather than having them square to the seat?

http://www.turningtools.co.uk/projects/stool/stool.html

A round stool top would be sculptable on the lathe too and so that you have no mounting showing afterwards you can screw through where the tenons will eventually be into a sacrificial faceplate.
HTH
Jon

 

[Racers]

My stool legs are splayed the front at 45 deg and the back straight out, I think the angel is 93.5 degrees.

Pete

 

[custard]

Nice stool, in fact very nice stool.

I suspect the perspective of the photograph has tended to reduce the amount of splay, and I'd guess that in real life the splay is more pronounced and consequently it looks even more dynamic and alive.

 

[BearTricks]

I'm going to splay the legs. Might also have to knock up an outboard tool rest from some spf I have lying round to turn the seat. I'm going to turn it rough then finish it with hand tools. I'm not confident about turning such a heavy piece on the lathe.

I think I'll stabilise the wood tomorrow and while that's drying I'll round up some offcuts and make some jigs.

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