An Excellent Jig Saw Project

  I have been a fan of Izzy Swan at izzyswan.com for a few years now.  He sometimes makes crazy things but often makes useful things too.  This folding stool project is an excellent jig saw project, and as he says in the professional video it can be made using only a jig saw. The entire project requires only a saw, drill, glue and sand paper. Nice.  Notice Mr. Swan reminds you to use a good saw blade. Sharp tools make all jobs easier.

DIY Carrying Along Stool. 

  This project of Mr. Swan's has many things to recommend it to a home work shop guy.  It is basic enough that it need not be intimidating. Further this project can be made in volume if one wanted to equip a play room or to sell the stools at a yard sale. Once you get the patterns set you can cut out lots of parts at one time.  Lastly the shape and design are classic enough that you could be finished in many different ways for many different looks.

cheers ian

   

Smooth

  When building out of wood it is good to have all surfaces smooth to the touch.  All surfaces don't have to be sanded to four hundred grit but they all need some attention, often the surface that comes off the jointer or planer is good enough for an under side of project or the inside of a box.

   In today's project the back side of the boards needed some attention because the boards I was using had been recovered from another furniture project from a couple of years ago.  The back side of the beaded boards were rough cut and had some glue residue as well.

  I had used these bead boards to make doors for cup boards in our previous family room. 

  After a bit of trimming I needed to clean up the back side of the boards.  I have every kind of sander and plane known to man and I finally decided to use 'the beast'

  

THE BEAST 

   3 by 21 inch rip snorting belt sander.  My 'beast' is at least 25 years old and doesn't get much work now days but... there are times, like today that it is just the perfect tool for the job.  I keep a 120 grit belt on the sander and use it when I want to make a whole bunch of dust in a big hurry.  The bead board was not too straight and slightly cupped with a few knots in awkward places so running it through the planer seemed like a bad idea and beginning with an orbital sander seemed too slow. ( with glue and crap on the boards, I wasn't risking a hand plane)

  

   With the belt sander, I clamped the board down and run the sander up and down the board a couple of times to clear away the rough stuff.  Then I used my random orbital sander to finish off the board.

the big clamp is a KHC Xlarge face clamp,
very handy to have around for times like this.

  After things were smoothed out I glued the pieces together to make yet another box.  This box will be sanded and painted once the glue is dry.  The design is for a box to sit on top of a low partition wall and collect car keys, cell phones and other stuff that get emptied out of ones pockets when one comes in through the door at the end of the day. 

    As follow up to the Folding Stool from last week

   

scratched bead on the leg

new seat.  12 inches square,
 my sit down was is to big for the original 10 inch seat.

 all that remains is to stain the stool and give it a couple of coats of shellac.  Photos to follow when the spirit moves to me to finish this job.

cheers, ianw  

P.S. another day of penguin weather.

Folding Stool

  Occasionally I make something from a plan, and actually follow the plan pretty closely. This week I went to our local Library and picked up a book called:

  
   This book has a bunch of the standard quick and easy projects and one caught my eye.  The idea of a stool for the work shop that folds out of the way when I don't need it is a good idea.  I brought the book home and started into the project.

  The glossy photo in the book showed an  oddly proportioned stool but I figured that it would have never gotten published it if was a total bomb.  After all, books aren't the internet, books have editors and publishing companies that have a vested interest in the information that they share.

 

 
  There is the plan and the following few pages show what to do first and for each projects gives a tip or two on order of assembly and the like.

   My stool is made from poplar.  I still have a couple of slabs of poplar left from making my grand kid's, cribs and beds and so I milled the wood to 1 1/2 thickness for this project.  The suggested material was 1 1/4 not 1 1/2 but I figured as a plus sized guy I would error on the side of sturdy in my construction.

   

  The end result is a folding stool that is 27 inches tall and stable front to back, but not so much side to side. This is a place to perch my butt while working on a lower bench, not a place to sit by the hour and drink beer. Think, workshop stool, not bar stool.  The seat is 3/4 plywood rather than glued up poplar and 10 inches in diameter. The brace on the legs is just a hunk of scrap I put on to check out the basic result, it will get changed when I decide on the final form of the stool.

   The design is good, but as happens it can't serve all people equally well. I made a couple of modifications to the stool to improve its comfort and usability. For example it is too tall for my wife to use comfortably, (saws can fix that) and my bottom is too wide for that seat. 

   Next blog I will share the changes I made to the Folding Stool.

P.S.  

http://www.thetoolstore.ca/viewItem.asp?idProduct=7383&blackjack-tilt-bin-organizer-set-6-compartments

  

  Organising is like taxes, it is ever present.