Katy Step Stool

Whew, its been a busy winter, at least at home (the commercial construction business still limps along).  It seems like my treasured weekends have been usurped by life.  But between naps, I have eked out a few little projects.

During a holiday visit from one of my young nieces, it occurred to me that the little step stools that I made for my two preschoolers (to be able to reach the sinks to wash their hands and brush their teeth) are useful to older children (8-10 ish),  too, for reaching taller cabinets and working in the kitchen.  My niece had a birthday coming up, so I promised I would make her a step stool and send it to her.

Each of the several stools I have made have been a different design, as I search for the most sturdy and best aesthetic.  This newest version is made from the leftover cut-offs from the curved stage nosing for the church building I finished in December.  I used the already glued up cut outs from the inside radius for legs and took the design inspiration from the curve.

 You can see the resulting leg shape with a slight curvature.  this would be exaggerated by setting the angle of the legs at about 15 degrees.  I used the Mill as an overhead router and came up with a nifty way to clamp curved objects in a parallel vise--note the piece of roundish wood in the vise--a cutoff from a broken sledge hammer handle (from wood splitting--see the early axe modification post ).




I routed the mortises with a 5 degree tapered end mill, reasoning that when driven tight, this would make a super strong joint.  Although I still think this was a good idea, I think oak is not the right material for this approach.  the wood is too strong and did not compress in the slot as I imagined.  this may work better with a softer wood.  After routing the brace mortises and assembling the legs, I wanted to true-up the legs to make sure I didn't get any wobble.  I built this jig to cut the assembled tops and bottoms flush.

The assembled legs, all trued up on the table saw, still had a little wobble.  I found that the assemble could still be "torqued" around to change the relationship of the legs.  But on  a flat surface with a flat top, the stool is true.  I temporarily hot-melt-glued the top in place, then drilled dowel mortises through the top into the legs for the permanent connection.  I made the dowels on my Southbend Lathe, again, with a little taper to make the tighter as I drove them in.  the result is very sturdy and, I believe, not glue-dependent.

Finishing has been a bane to me that I resolved to vanquish.  I have been reading and experimenting with techniques and materials and still have not found a good process.  This time around, I decided to try a French-Polish (old fashioned finishing technique, not WWII Biggest Losers).  This involves rubbing shellac into the wood continually building the coats while wet.  It takes a bit of practice but yields a very hand-rubbed appearance.  this is a very NOT durable finish and is particularly susceptible to alcohol damage since that is the solvent for shellac.  But it is a very natural finish and is easy to repair.  It came out OK for a first try and not too good to walk on.