Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Foot Stool


Well, it's about time for a post!

This was a great spring project, as it was all about giving new life to an old foot stool. Well, more like an old foot platform - the original had no legs, it just sat on its cleats. I made it years ago for my Mother, who needed a 3" tall foot rest as part of some physical therapy.

I had saved it, and the time had come for it to grow into something new. I decided to add legs in the style of a Moravian chair, with the legs mortised into cleats which are let into the bottom of the two part top. The original cleats were too narrow for this purpose, and just screwed to the bottom. I removed the two end cleats, and created some 3 1/2" wide by 1/2" deep dadoes with saw, chisel and router plane. I then added larger cleats and also created a dado for the sole remaining original cleat.

Angled, tapered mortises were made with a brace, bit and tapered reamer. The legs were worked up from 2x2" stock with drawknife and spokeshave, and tapered to match the mortises.

Here it is with assembly complete and leveled with shims for trimming the legs to final length:


And a closeup of my high tech self-leveling device:


The finished foot stool:


And the boy approves!


This whole project didn't take more than a couple of hours total, but since I could only sneak in a very few minutes here and there, it took forever...


6 comments:

  1. Love it. I really have a soft spot for those things. Mine always seems to be really useful around the house.

    ReplyDelete
  2. great post, wonderful project, like your leveling devise O_*

    ReplyDelete
  3. Really nice! It is great to put new life into older things isn't it!

    Post Tenebras, Lux
    Dirus Canis
    The Wolf and Moon™

    ReplyDelete
  4. It looks like someone claimed the new seat in the house. Before you know it, you will be building him a new mini recliner!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Brian - I know, they are one of those things - while you are making it you are thinking "Now what exactly will this be used for?" And then when it's finished, you're thinking "Why didn't I make two of those?"

    Julio - Thanks man!

    Canis Dirus - Yes, that's one of the things I really appreciate about wood. If the original stool had been plastic, this project, and the memories it brings with it, would not have been possible.

    John - Yep - "You finished MY stool!"

    ReplyDelete
  6. Very cute blog post, keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete

Comment Moderation has been turned on - too much spam! Bummer.

I will get an email notification and will approve any appropriate comments ASAP.