Bar Stool


mds2

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Recently I have made a bunch of child stools and my mother has been asking me for one.  She wants it just because I made them, which is nice but not necessary.  So I decided to make her her own full sized stool for Christmas.  I've never made a stool, or any sort of chair before so this should be a fun experience.  It will be made of solid walnut.  I'm not sure how I will shape the legs yet, I have a few ideas but nothing set in stone.  So far I have milled all my material to size, and made a jig to line everything up.  The plan is to half-blind the cross members into the legs. The jig makes all the compound angles easier in my head.  Anyway here is what I have so far:

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A little more progress for this evening. Time in the shop is spotty sometimes. A few minutes here and there.  I have one side fit up now, but I'll walk through fitting the other side.   The legs on this stool skew 8 degrees in two directions.  For me the holding jig is essential for getting all the angles right.  I spent the first evening laying out the jig and it is made from scrap melamine I had leaning in the corner.  

Here is the leg blanks with the cross member blanks sitting across the top. I clamp the cross members so they don't move while I mark everything. 

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Next I mark the shoulders by using a marking knife and putting a little tic mark on both sides. 

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Then it is basically connect the dots. I use a t bevel set to 8 degrees to verify they line up and to make a straight line with the knife.  

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Then I use a marking gage to mark the depth of the tail. 

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then I mark the dovetail itself. I eyeball the angle on these. 

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Then I use a handsaw to get rid of the waste. 

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Next I put the cross member back in the jig. If I did everything right the shoulders should wedge themselves between the two legs.  Then I can transfer the tails onto the legs using a knife. 

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Morning update:

I completed the joinery and got the legs glued together.  It was nice not needing any clamps.   You also see the seat blank in this pic.  I glued it up a couple weeks ago.

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I realized my biggest fear when assembling.  I was really concerned about this happening, and it did!  Fixable though.  And I wasnt paying attention and sawed too far.  Twice!!

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I have a couple more cross members to make, but here is the rough shape.   I'm not certain what to do on the legs yet.  Roundover, or something more elborate?

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Update on the the stool from the weekend.  I spent a lot of time with a rasp and a file shaping everything.  I decided to cut an arced chamfer on the outside corners of the legs, then did a similar treatment to the other edges.  A thinkin man would have did this before gluing it all together, but I love shaping walnut, so it wasn't too bad.  

The top cross members are two really short pieces.  I didnt feel like dovetailing them, so I used my kreg jig.  They were kind of a pain in the ass to screw together, but it works.


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The next thing I did was shape the bottom of the fit.  It curves like this on two of the faces. I cut the bulk of the waste away with a handsaw, then cleaned it up with a file.  Like I said before, a thinkin man would have did this with a bandsaw before hand.   
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Preshaping:
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Cleaning up outside chamfer with a spokeshave file:
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This shows most of the shaping close to finished:
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After lots of sanding I got the first coat of oil on it:
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One of my favorite details. Where the chamfer slightly exposes the end of the dovetail on the legs:
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Stool update. Construction completed.   I had been putting off cutting the seat because I knew the blank was too tall for my bandsaw.  The plan was to drive to the other side of town to use my friend's saw.  I couldn't remember how much it was over capacity as I glued it up a few weeks ago.  Finally I just set it on the saw to see how close it was:

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Not worth the drive across town.  I tried to adjust the saw guide up as far as I could. Even considered cutting it without the cover on the saw as that gave me an extra 1/32" of height.  Finally I ended up running the blank over the jointer until it just fit.  

After cutting and a little sanding:
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Cleaned with mineral spirits:
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Next I need to mate the two pieces.  If I had a domino I domino it, but I don't so I decided to use dowels.   I drilled four holes in the base and then placed dowel centers in the holes.  I set the seat on top, and then pushed down to create the corresponding center parks.

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Next add glue and clamp it together:
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After that I wiped the seat down with BLO.
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Speaking of kreg screws: I hit one drilling the dowel holes and ruined a forstner bit:
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Yes, and good job of nearly getting that car out of your shop.:)

One time I was encroaching on that side of the garage for a few days.  My wife came out, held her arms out wide and said "MINE". Reclaiming her half the garage.  

My brand new pickup sits outside :(

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Three lessons from this thread;

1- Everyone should own a domino because they are awesome.

2- Woman rule over us and there is no way around it.

3- Pocket hole screws will ruin your bits and eventually your life. See # 1

No argument here.  I'm drinking if you're buying.

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