I have been wanting a shop stool to use with my workbench.  I find myself stooping over quite a bit when chiseling and laying out joinery.  Sitting would be much nicer.  Since I was making one I figured I could make 3 stools total.

The plan

I am starting the stools at 30″ high and placing the lower rail high enough up, so I can cut them down if I need to later on.  I did some trial and error and 30″ is a good place to start with my 36″ tall bench.  I ended up cutting it down to 28.5″ tall

The legs have compound angles of 5 degrees and 5 degrees.

Outline of Process

• Rough Cut
• Joint surface/edge
• Plane to thickness
• Rip Pieces to width
• Joint surfaces of legs again (damn things)
  • Plane again
• Cut Legs
  • 5 degree bevel and miter
• Cut Rails
  • 5 degree miter only
  • Top one is over height
  • After tops are cut, align lower rail and mark
• Route Mortises
  • All 96 in three stools
• Loose Tenons
  • Resaw tenon stock
    • Plane in between cuts
  • Plane to thickness for tenons
  • Route radii on tenon stock
  • Cut to length
• Cut slots for Z-clips
• Route Edges
• Sand, Sand, Sand
• Clamp Stool Halves
• Clamps Stools
• Tops with Breadboard Ends
  • Laminate Cherry Boards
  • Edge glue three pieces
  • Hand Plane Flat ‘ish
  • Send through planer
  • Cut to Size
  • Route Mortise in Breadboards
  • Cut Tenon on Stool Tops
  • Drill Peg Holes
  • Glue and Assemble
• Lay out scooped seat
• Bandsaw cut of scoop
• Hand Plane and sand, sand, sand
• Lay out Dowels for shear load of seat
• Attach top with dowels and z-clips
• Level legs and chamfer edges
• Minor sanding
• Add finish

Rough Cuts

Legs were cut from 8/4 stock and the rest was 5/4 stock to start with.  I cut everything to rough size with the miter saw.

Pieces that were wider than 6″ had to be cut down to fit onto the jointer.  I started by straightening one edge to make it somewhat straight before cutting it on the bandsaw.

I jointed and planed all the pieces and stacked them to sit for a couple days

Milling, Ripping, Milling Again

After ripping the legs to width I had some additional warpage and had to joint and plane again.  The final leg dimension ended up around 1 3/8″ by 1 3/8″.

Compound Angle Cuts

It was very difficult to visualize the compound angled cut on both ends of the legs.  I started by marking the two outside surfaces of legs.  The marks also showed top vs bottom.  The outer surfaces won’t get any mortises.  These would be my reference marks the entire time when making the cuts.  I had a scrap piece of lumber that I marked in the same manner, so I could get a process down.

I held one of the legs up with exaggerated angles to get my first reference lines and made the first cut.  After that I used small torpedo angle to ensure I was angling it correctly and made some rough angle marks on the bottom of the legs. I confirmed the setup with my scrap piece of wood.

To cut the legs to length I used an auxiliary fence on my miter gauge and cut them out.  The top angles all come to a point in the center.  The bottom of the legs are opposite and concave in the center.

Rails for Stools

Using the same 5 degree miter setup (setting bevel back to 90), I cut all the top rails to length based on my drawing.  I wasn’t exactly sure how long to make the lower rails.  So, I had to lay it out with the top rail clamped into place.  I measured from the top rail down on the short and long sides of the base.  Keep in mind that the stool bases are rectangular, so there is a short rail side and long rail side.

After cutting all rails to length with the 5 degree miter it was time to lay out the mortises.

Laying out Mortises

I decided on 3/8″ mortises 1″ deep and 1″ wide.  After cutting my first one I shortened the depth to 3/4″ deep.  At 1″ deep the mortises were fully overlapping and I didn’t have a positive depth stop when I would insert a tenon.

I started with marking out the rail mortises.  Notice the lines wrap onto the surface of the rails.  I use those lines to mark the legs.  I clamp the upper rail into place and transfer the mortise marks onto the leg. Then I slide the lower rail into place and marked the position of the mortise on the lower portion of the leg.  Once I had the layout on one leg and rail, I could transfer it to all of them with the help of some combination squares.  Also I marked an arrow that pointed to the outer surface.  That will be my reference surface for routing mortises.

Cutting Mortises

Using my new mortising jig, I cut all the mortises in one afternoon.   96 in total across three stools

Most of the mortises took three successively deeper passes to complete and I had to clean the up-spiral bit once in the process.

Tenon Stock

I had some 8/4″ stock left over that I used for the tenon stock.  It was already milled and I started by resawing it on the bandsaw.  I set the bandsaw up for a little thicker than 7/16″ so I had some stock to plane off to get to 3/8″.   After each pass on the bandsaw I would set the 7/16″ piece aside.  The remaining piece was sent through the planer again so I would have one reference surface for each tenon piece after I cut it.

After resawing, I planed each piece down and slowly snuck up on a tight fit in the existing mortises.

After the thickness was correct I took the pieces over to the router table and rounded off the corners with a 3/16 roundover bit and cut to length (1 1/4″)

Dry Fit of Stools

I started to perform a dry fit and found that I screwed something up during my layout.  There was a small gap between the lower rail and legs.  I may have cut on the wrong side of the line or something.

After measuring the gap I had with feeler gauges, I transferred that onto the upper rails.  I cut the upper rails down by sneaking up on it, and testing the fit.

I am going to mount the stool tops to the base with Z-clips like table tops.  I was going to initially try something fancy by mortising the base to the top, but that seems overly complex.  I should have thought more on this because I changed my mind later.  The base is pretty stout so it doesn’t rely on the stiffness of the top.  In order to mount the z-clips, I needed to route a small notch.  I used a test scrap to get the distance correct, roughly 7/16″ from top.

Edge Profile and Sanding

I wanted to dress up the edges of the stools, so I decided to use a 3/16″ roundover/beading bit.

On the outer edge, I used the bit from both surfaces to get the profile below.  The two adjacent corners were beaded from one surface only.   Rails received the same beading treatment.  The innermost corner of the legs were only rounded.

I don’t have any pictures, but I sanded the legs and rails with 150/220 then wet down.  Then, I sanded again with 150/220.  I had to use a block and knock off the sharpness of the routed edges.  If I made another set of stools I would use a different edge treatment that wasn’t sharp.  It took quite a bit of sanding to smooth out.

Clamping Bases

In order to clamp the stools I needed a bunch of 5 degree wedges.  I utilized all the scrap from the rails to make these.  Since the stools are rectangular, I glued each half of the stool up as pairs.   I taped the wedges to the legs before gluing up and clamping.  In order to ensure the top surfaces are all aligned I made sure the rails were slightly proud when clamping and planed them flush later.

Stool Seat

The main section of the stool is comprised of three pieces ash and cherry.  The cherry I had wasn’t thick enough, so I laminated them together first.

I jointed the cherry laminations and then glued them in between the ash board.

After the glue was scraped, I hand planed one side flat, well pretty flat, and then ran them through the planer.  I cut them square and to size (10 1/2″ by 13 1/2″ wide).  The next step was to cut the breadboard ends to size.  I probably don’t need them for this small of a top, but they look nice.  Using my mortising jig and plunge router I cut a 1/4″ mortise in the stool ends.

Finished Result

The next step was to cut the breadboard tenon.  The breadboards were made from leftover 8/4 stock from the legs.   I created the tenons on my router table using a bunch of passes with a 1/2″ straight bit.  I should have used the table saw for these since they took forever on the router table.

The tenons will be hidden, so I used my mortising jig as a vise to saw the ends off.

After cutting the tenon end off, I had to clean them up with chisels and shoulder plane to fit in the mortise.  They started out way too tight.

Pinning on Breadboard Ends

The next step was to make some dowels to hold the ends on the seat.  I will glue the very center of the breadboard end and “drawbore” pin on the ends. I had to make smaller dowels (3/16″) than I had on hand, so, I used my dowel plate and a 2 lb sledge.  Loud, but effective.

The next step was to drill some holes in main base of the seat.  They had to be laid out so they went through the center of the tenon.  After the holes were drilled I installed the breadboard and marked the hole locations with a drill bit through the seat.  Then I offset the mark by 1/16″ towards the shoulder and drilled holes through tenon.  I elongated the holes to allow for wood movement

I just used my cordless drill and moved it back and forth to elongate the hole.

Installed the breadboards, added glue to center (cherry section) and added  a bit of glue to the top portion of the dowels before installing them.  Where I added the glue and with the elongated hole I am assuming the glue won’t bond to the breadboard tenon.  It will just bond to the top section to the stool seat.

The next step was to flush up the breadboards with hand planes (jack and block)

Seat Scoop

I wanted to shape the seat to add more comfort, so I began by laying out the general shape.  I believe it is called a saddle seat.  The very center is 3/16″ deep, the next outboard lines are at 1/8″ deep and then down to 0 at 1 3/4″ from each end.

I used the bandsaw to rough cut the seat shape with the aid of a large section of laminated 3/4 plywood I had laying around.  I had to joint one edge of the plywood before I started.

After the bandsaw, I used a scrub plane to knock down the high spots.  Then, I used a belt sander with 80 grit, then 120 grit,  to finish the seat shaping.  I may have used a spokeshave if I had one.

The seats are not perfectly contoured, but they are pretty smooth.   It is tough to get them perfect.  Something I will work on with future projects.

Rounding Edges and Transitions

I started by rounding the corners of the stool by laying out a radius with small roll of tape as my template.  Then, I cut the majority of the waste at the bandsaw.  After that I clamped my belt sander to my bench and worked to my line.

I needed to add a large radius to the top edges of stool, so I grabbed that same chunk of plywood and went to my router table.  A 3/8″ roundover was put in the router and I could do two edges with one setup.  Then I would rotate the stool seat and do the other two edges.

I also added  a small roundover to the underside with the same setup.  In order to form the transition between the edges I clamped up the stool into my leg vise and used files and sandpaper to connect the roundovers.

Mating Seat and Base – Adding Dowels

To ensure good contact between seat and base I set the seat onto the base and ensure it didn’t rock and had good contact.  All of the bases required some tuning with  hand plane to make this happen.  The contact still wasn’t perfect but didn’t rock.

After thinking about someone sitting in the stool and leaning back on two legs I became concerned that maybe the z clips weren’t enough.  I needed something for shear, and I decided on 3/8″ dowels.  It would have been easier to do this with the seats all squared up, but oh well.  I started by centering the seats on the based and marking the the outline of the base on the seat bottom.  From there I made a few measurements from a common location and marked where the holes should go in the base and the seat, but I didn’t use them directly.  They are just for reference.  Since I had a doweling jig, I figured I would use it to drill the holes in the base.  I used some of the 5 degree wedges to properly align the jig with the top surface.  I only drilled one hole at a time.

The drill bit I used was a bit smaller than 3/8 (23/64″) to ensure a really snug fit with the dowel.  To precisely locate the dowel hole on the seat I used a dowel center.  I needed to wrap tape around a 5/16″ center so it fit snug.

I placed the dowel center into the hole in the base.  Then, align the seat with my previous marks and gently push down the seat to indent the location.  Next drill a hole in the seat bottom and install a dowel.  The dowel will act as a pivot point.  I drilled another hole into the other upper rail and placed the dowel center in it.  With the dowel installed in the first hole, I aligned the marks on the base and top again, push down and make another indent.  Drill the second seat hole.

Using dowels and z-brackets, I fastened the stool top to the base\

Leveling Legs

Leveling the legs was pretty straightforward.  I set the stool on the table saw to see if it rocked.

2 out of 3 stools needed some adjustment with a block plane.   Then I chamfered all the bottom of the legs to avoid splintering.

It was at this time I received a request for 4 total stools for someone else.  I needed to make two more, for  a total of five.  Four for a customer, one for me.  I started the whole process again after Thanksgiving for two more stools.

Cutting Stools Down in Height

Four of five stools had to be cut down in height to 24″ based on the client request.  Below is the quick tool I made to mark the legs.  A 5/16 hole holds the pencil pretty well.

I couldn’t figure out a clever way to cut the legs down with the table saw, so a hand saw did the trick.  A belt sander was also used to true up the legs if there was a wobble or a poor cut.

Finishing

Since all of the pieces were sanded already, I had to just clean it up a bit with 220 sandpaper.  My stool was finished with Danish Oil (natural)

Since all the stool seats and bases are similar I needed a way to mark the seats so I could still see them after painting.  I used a center punch and marked them with 1 to 5 dots.

The other four stools were finished in a two-tone scheme.  The stool tops were stained to closely match the client’s existing chairs.  I used the following two stains.  3 parts of Red Chestnut to 1 part Honey.  After the stain was dry, I applied 4 coats of wiping poly.

The base of the stool was painted black.  I used the following paint, which never lets me down.

The stools turned out great, but were a lot more work than I anticipated.  I think I spent about 80 hours on all five stools.  That time would have been reduced if I would have made all five at once and would have known the final height of 24″ before starting.