Popular Post Coop Posted January 22 Popular Post Report Posted January 22 I think I might have mentioned this a while back but there is an article in FWW issue #313 that I found intriguing. The author features a chair build as well as a foot stool pictured. @Chet kind of got me interested in the stool as I thought the chair to be too much of a challenge. I ended up building the stool and not posting a journal as I feared I would butcher a $100 piece of walnut ad have egg on my face but it came out better than expected. Too much so. At our family Christmas get together, my daughter and our future son in law requested one. This thing is so labor intensive to be so small that I swore I’d never do another and now I have two on my plate. Here is a pic from FWW mag. The first board laid out, ready for the jointer and planer. Due to our coldish weather, this may take longer than planed so bear with me.. 7 Quote
fcschoenthal Posted January 22 Report Posted January 22 Good for you Coop. I saw that in the magazine and couldn't imagine doing it myself. Interested in seeing your progress. Since this is your second, it should come out perfect, right? 1 Quote
wtnhighlander Posted January 22 Report Posted January 22 Following along with interest, @Coop! 1 Quote
Popular Post Coop Posted January 23 Author Popular Post Report Posted January 23 There are dimensional plans in the article for the chair, for the most part but not for the stool. For future reference, the author calls the small rectangular seat parts “tiles”;so I will as well. Knowing the size of each tile, I counted them in the pic of the stool and determined the width and depth of the stool’s top surface and that turned out well. I used his front leg height of the chair on my first stool and it felt a little low, even for a stool so I’m adding an 1 1/2 height to this one. The legs are splayed at 11* from the top. I laid my original on a piece of paper and traced it out for a template, something I would have made if I knew I would have to make others. I made a few, hopefully, unobvious changes. Without having to cut the pattern out, I used push pins into the 1/2” mdf template material and connected the dots. After drawing the necessary lines to connect the small pricks, I cut the template out on the bs, staying a silly millimeter from the line and finessed it with a rasp and sanding block. Also today, with a snow covered yard in the background,, I wheeled the planer outside and planed the legs and sides planks down and stickered them to be cut to final size. 5 Quote
Mark J Posted January 23 Report Posted January 23 12 hours ago, Coop said: Without having to cut the pattern out, I used push pins into the 1/2” mdf template material and connected the dots. Very clever! 1 Quote
Popular Post Coop Posted January 25 Author Popular Post Report Posted January 25 I separated the legs and side planks with the jig saw and took leg sections to the band saw and separated them. The sides were cut to length and the 11* angle cut on the table saw. With the sides and legs dry fitted, I used the template to trace onto the legs, the area that will be removed by the router. I’ll remove most of this waste on the bs, prior to glue up. I also laid out for the four Domino mortises that will attach each leg to the sides. With the mortises cut and dry fitted for accuracy, I’ll call it a day. Tomorrow, I’ll drill the holes in the sides to accommodate the 1/4” black poly rope that will support the tiles. 7 Quote
Mark J Posted January 25 Report Posted January 25 Coop, you're using 4 Dominoes for each joint. Does that make for a stronger joint than 2 larger Dominoes? Quote
Coop Posted January 25 Author Report Posted January 25 These are 8 mm x 50 mm and are what the author of the article used. Quote
pkinneb Posted January 25 Report Posted January 25 On 1/25/2025 at 8:29 AM, Mark J said: Coop, you're using 4 Dominoes for each joint. Does that make for a stronger joint than 2 larger Dominoes? I would argue yes, as there would be more glue surface with four than two larger Domino's 2 Quote
Popular Post Coop Posted January 26 Author Popular Post Report Posted January 26 I didn’t get to spend much time in the shop today which accounts for my lack of accomplishments. I laid out the rope holes on one side and decided since I had to make at least one more of these, I would sandwich the template between the two sides and double sided tape them together. Instead of the foam double sided tape, I used a much thinner tape to eliminate any gap that might cause tear out. Then to the drill press. I used a small pointed punch at the marked hole locations and set my fence. The article I’m following says to drill a 1/4” hole and I found on my first bench that you don’t push or pull a 1/4 poly rope thru 18” of 1/4” holes and ended up having to drill them 5/16”. I used a backer board to prevent any blowout on the bottom piece. The two sides are connected under the seat by two “struts” and calls for the thickness at the ends of 2 1/4”. I don’t have any lumber that thick so I improvised and added the necessary thickness with some scrap to my 6/4 boards. As these will be located under the seat, no one will ever know the difference. Tomorrow, plan is to attach the legs to the sides and flush trim to the template and final sand. Then I’ll attach the two sides together with the struts. With any luck, I should be able to break down the pieces for the next stool and weather permitting, maybe even run them thru the jointer and planer. Until then. 7 Quote
Popular Post Coop Posted January 28 Author Popular Post Report Posted January 28 Next up was to glue the legs to the sides and with a couple of cauls to even out the pressure, I got them into clamps. With these dried, I attached each side with dbl back tape to the template and took them back to the bs to cut the waste as close to the template as possible before routing to final shape. I didn’t get pics of that but with it raining outside and the doors closed and no dust collection on my router, they probably would have been grainy anyway. Recently a couple of guys on here explained to me, how to prevent tear out when using a router with a template by turning the piece over. I thought I was abiding by that until one caught me by surprise on a leg. I could tell my daughter to put this side next to a wall but decided to do a repair job. I nibbled a section out on the table saw to clean it up and glued a piece as near to the existing grain as I could find. With a small plane and some sanding, it came out better than it was. Per the article, the sides were to be attached to the supporting struts with 4 Dominos per joint. To attach two pieces with four Dominos on the same plane, just takes some careful marking. But for me, to join two pieces at 90* angles X 4 and hope that all four legs come anywhere near the floor just wasn’t worth the risk so I’m using screws to complete the joinery. I used the struts as a pattern on the front faces and laid out the screw holes. On the drill press, I initially drilled the holes in the sides to allow the screws to pass thru. Then using the stop on the drill press, I used a 21/64” bit for the guide for my 3/8” square hole punch. These plugs will be used to cover the screws instead of using dowels. With the struts clamped in place between the two side sections, I drilled screw holes into each end of the struts and screwed everything together. And believe it or not and it surprised me, all four legs touch the surface at one time, without a wobble! Tomorrow, the not so fun begins with the creation of the tiles . 11 Quote
gee-dub Posted January 28 Report Posted January 28 I am lovin' this build. It is always a bummer when you get the surprise tear out. Nice save. . The chair has a really cool look. 2 Quote
pkinneb Posted January 28 Report Posted January 28 Looks great Coop! Nice repair as well! I look forward to seeing how you do the tiles. I was reading the article last night in FWW and I am not yet understanding why some tiles are connected with domino's. 1 Quote
Coop Posted January 28 Author Report Posted January 28 Thanks! The tile pattern is a running bond and to off set the lines, there is a 1/2 tile attached to a full tile via domino. These 1 1/2 tiles alternate front to back on every other row. 1 1 Quote
Popular Post Coop Posted January 29 Author Popular Post Report Posted January 29 I started the day by truing up the length and angles of the legs on the ts with just a smidge needing to come off. Then I took the dog for a ride, cleaned up the shop a bit and had lunch with my wife. Anything to put off making the tiles. Knowing it had to be done, I took a 6.5” x 49” x 4/4 piece of walnut and after jointing one edge and both sides a couple of times to reduce the time at the planer, I reduced it to 5/8” thickness which produced a bunch of chips and sawdust. I then cut this into 3 ea. 2” wide boards at the ts. Then to the router table and using a 1/8” round over bit I softened all four edges. Using my small sled, I cut the strips into 45 ea. 3 1/8” tiles. And back to the router table to round over both sides of each end of these guys. The running bond pattern requires a 1/2 in length tile to off set the lines so using the Domino I cut the mortises and I joined 15 of the tiles together, to be cut in half later. With this much excitement, I was tempted to take the dog for another ride but I lingered on. With the fence and stop block in place I drilled two holes in each tile to accept the rope, I drilled each hole a little over half way and flipped the tile to finish the hole from the other side to avoid tear out. I now have enough tiles, full size and 1 1/2 to finish the seat. With a little final sanding, it’s finish time, using cloth applied ARS. 5 2 Quote
pkinneb Posted January 29 Report Posted January 29 Coop I assume the jig is so you can cut the domino's without holding the small parts? Also based on this you will use approx a full 6.5" x 8' x 4/4 board for the tiles? Quote
Popular Post Coop Posted January 29 Author Popular Post Report Posted January 29 Paul, yes, the jig is to hold the tiles in place. I had initially marked the location for the dowels and on the first cut, realized that I could use to the stop latches instead. No, the 4’ length gave me enough tiles for the seat with two extras. 2 1 Quote
Popular Post Coop Posted January 31 Author Popular Post Report Posted January 31 Not a lot done today that was photo worthy. I got the 3/8” plugs cut and smoothed the visible edges with a slight chamfer and got them glued into place. After one final light sanding, I wiped on the first coat ARS. I used a drying rack for the tiles on the last stool and I’ll set that up tomorrow and get a coat or two on them. I also managed to get the mainframe pieces rough cut for the next stool. As it has been raining all day today and coolish, all of the shop doors have been closed. I didn’t want dust from the milling of the new parts being attracted to the finish I had just applied so, I constructed a “ hillbilly paint booth”. Thanks for watching. I have no idea how I managed to get the next two pics in here and seem to be able to delete them so my apologies. 7 Quote
pkinneb Posted January 31 Report Posted January 31 Looks great Coop! RE the spray booth whatever works right? Beats mucking up your finish 1 Quote
gee-dub Posted January 31 Report Posted January 31 Good one on the spray booth. I have taped a "tent" of insulating foam board together as a temporary booth in the past. I recall a Fine Woodworking article where a guy used a shower curtain sort of set up. If it works, it works . The color and material look really great. I am really enjoying this ride-a-long. 1 Quote
Popular Post Coop Posted February 1 Author Popular Post Report Posted February 1 For the first time in almost two weeks without rain or snow, I took my finishing operations outside. After lightly sanding the sides and edges of the tiles, I applied two coats of ARS and taking advantage of the holes, I hung them out to dry. A second coat was applied to the frame in the shop. With a little luck from Mother Nature and the weatherman, I should get the third coats on tomorrow and start threading tiles on Monday. 6 Quote
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