Hi Folks,
In another discussion, about a totally unrelated topic a stepstool was posted with a pic of same. It blew me away as on first glance one might think, wow that looks easy.
Then you take a closer look and you find angled joinery all over the place, including dovetails. This ain’t no simple stepstool! There was an article by, I believe Mario Rodriguez, a while back in FWW about a stepstool.
This one takes it to a new level in my mind. I’m hoping that poster in that other discussion will chime in here so you can see it.
My question is what is the best approach to laying uot angled joinery? Should I draw full scale drawings? Should I attempt to get the angles from the pic? I’ve not made a piece with angled joinery so am at a bit of a loss as to the process.
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Replies
It ain't all that, and I botched the finish a bit. Here's the pics:
Nice little stool. Very creative design!
Will,
That's exactly why I put up this discussion.
When I look at it I see a lot more than a silly little box as Samson puts it. There's a soul in it. Look closely and you can see it. It is obvious to me that the maker wanted more than just a simple stepstool.
Yeah I'm sure there are those who might question it as Fine Woodworking and I say pooh pooh to them. Sure, anyone could slap some boards together, paint it and call it a day. Not so here.
I tell you what. I'll take this design and make a bunch of them and I'll bet ya I can sell 'em all at a handsome profit too!
Maybe I'm making too much of this but for some reason I see more.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
question it as Fine Woodworking ....I for one think Fine Woodworking could be a child making his/her first birdhouse. A few nails bent over, and dripp marks in the paint.But did it all by themselves and walked to the backyard tree with a big smile and hung it there... AND then watched as a little bird started carrying sticks and bits of string into it..
Will,
Amen brother.
I think all pieces are made from the heart or they should be. To paraphrase Mel, one can make a simple piece and then again one can make a really nice simple piece that stands above the crowd. Simple relating to the functional sapect not the design.
It's blatantly obvious that the maker had more in mind than simple functionality and that's the difference. I suspect that many period furniture makers do/did the same. Hey, we took an English design and modified it to our liking. Mr. Chippendale took that to a different level.
It's the design/approach that sets it apart to me. Some really creative thinking.
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 10/19/2007 9:13 am ET by KiddervilleAcres
Fellows, you are all very kind.
I saw a stool at the furniture store the day we bought my daughter's bed - chincey panels put together with pocket screws and painted. I decided to make something similar, but with real joints. While making the first panel, the figured wood I'd choosen split as I chopped a mortise. I then just decided to make my own design, and did so rather on the fly - my daughter needed her stool and my wife's toe was a tapping. While many woodworkers feel that plans are a must, and I agree for anything complex, there is something satisfying about designing on the fly for simple projects. Just get in there and start playing with the wood.
Mel, I love hand tools, but I also like my TS, BS, and SCMS! I cut things like DT and M&T's by hand, but ripping, resawing, and crosscutting - mostly power unless I decide to do a hand only project - which I've done once or twice.
Samson,
I was just kidding about handtools. I don't care how anyone makes nice stuff. I have relied almost entirely on power tools up until two years ago, and am moving slowly in the direction of more use of handtools. The only way they will get my motorized joiner and planer is to pry them out of my cold dead hands. :-) I am jealous about the chop saw. I just started using one of those, and they are a godsend. Mel
Measure your output in smiles per board foot.
Samson,
Your stool is to normal stools as the Taj Mahal is to normal monuments. As you said, it was a labor of love. I just wish you hadn't said that you used a chop saw. I was picturing you with a bow saw and a set of chisels and a cinder block for sharpening the chisels. :-)All kidding aside, your stool could be used in a woodworking lesson on the process of design. There is nothing like taking a fairly common item, and trying to make it special. You did. (and then some). Please keep posting photos of your work.MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot.
It's a couple years ago now, but I'm happy to try to answer anything at all you want to know about the joinery or the process.
As far as the angles, as I recall, I cheated. The maple stretchers are let into the legs like 1/4 to 1/2 an inch. That way, if the angle is not just so, no one is the wiser and no compromises like twist are introduced to close gaps (oh, yeah, and i think it makes it stronger too). With the stretcher clamped into position in its recess in the leg, I simply used a brad point bit in a drill to make what I call a "floating cylindrical through tenon" cough, guffaw.
The woods are maple and walnut.
The dovetails are no big deal. They are just an exercise in chiseling to a line marked from whatever shape tail you happen to cut.
Edited 10/18/2007 1:41 pm ET by Samson
Edited 10/18/2007 1:45 pm ET by Samson
Samson,
Awwwww, now you've done it! Can't let the CFO see this. I swear I could see at least a few new tools in that stool!
You could make the DTs through as well right? The mortise & tenons could become through also, perhaps wedged? Don't have any walnut so will most likely use cherry & maple or birch.
Mind if I borrow the design. Ah never mind, I'll just steal it and make some changes. That way I won't get sued! :-)
When the wife saw the stool, she said."What a nice stool, can you make one for me? It looks easy enough to make". I was a bit taken aback by that. I saw all sorts of angled joinery.
You say it's simple/easy and if that's the case then your joinery sure doesn't leave that impression with me anyway. That's mighty fine execution in my book.
Regards, Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
You could make the DTs through as well right?
The walnut stretchers are a different thickness than the legs, so through would be a challenge. Even if they were the same thickness, I probably would NOT do through, as I'd worry that I was taking out a lot of meat from the legs.
The mortise & tenons could become through also, perhaps wedged?
Absolutely. Instead of stout dowels - ah, uh .. floating cylinderical through tenons .. you could use wedged through tenons. This would be much more challenging though as all I had to do was set things right and lock it in with a dowel - with the wedged approach, evertything has to fit smoothly an true in all planes.
Edited 10/18/2007 2:40 pm ET by Samson
Edited 10/18/2007 2:41 pm ET by Samson
As for the process on angles. If you have a chop saw or SCMS, it's pretty straight forward.
- prep you leg stock square and a few inches longer than finished to allow for the angle cuts at the ends
- pick your angle of choice (IIRC - somewhere in the 10 degree range? but it eally doesn't matter a degree more or less as uniformity is much more important than the precise angle) and set the saw - use a stop block or gang cut to get identical parts
- the key is to make all the similar angle cuts (e.g., those on each end of all four legs) at one time so that they are identical
Edited 10/18/2007 2:31 pm ET by Samson
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