a quick stool

[Steve knight]

I wish I had some appleply or Baltic birch in the right size but I did not. but this let me try it out in cheaper plywood. I only mismeasured the center piece. not sure how I managed it but I did it. I had to cut it again and it was even worse plywood. but the mortises were perfect. I think good ply will look interesting with the 3d carving. I will post a finished picture tomorrow. I used 3/4" ply and the stool top is 12x8 I think and about 1' tall. the sides are also through tenons with a wedge.

[James Jaragosky]

This looks very nice. I look forward to seeing the pictures of the finished project.
And I agree; if it looks this good with standard plywood, how much nicer will quality wood make the project look.

[Steve knight]

I am really starting to like the Baltic birch and the appleply. both cut so well and clean compared to other plywoods. the edges look really nice too.
I would like to sell these stools. but the 3d adds about 1 hour to it. i can speed it up with a 1/16" bit but I was out of them. not sure if I could sell one for 100.00 figure 2 hours start to finish and 10 to 15 in ply or a bit more for purpleheart or such.

[Peter Meacham]

Steve

If this were my project I would make the following changes to help speed the production and change the appearance.

Make the legs fit into recesses on the bottom of the seat rather than make through mortices. That makes for a cleaner look on the top in my opinion and would help speed production by eliminating fiddling with that aspect of the job. You could make through dowels or screws with plugs to secure the legs to the top if you still want to have that type of appearance.

Eliminate the 3-D carving on the top - both for seating comfort and to speed production. You could personalize the stools with a name engraved on each side of the stretcher - either by laser engraver (contract it out or find a co-production partner) or engrave with the CNC.

[james mcgrew]

some years ago we did stools for christmas gifts, what made them valuable was the custom names,

my mom had one for us when we started to brush and need to reach the vanity's

it had a bit of a rhyme on it

" this little stool is mine

i use it all the time

to reach the thing's i couldn't

and lot's of thing's i shouldn't"!!


this was a good memory for me

cool stool!!!

jim

[Steve knight]

I agree the 3d needs to be optional. it is not a big deal for comfort really. but it does eat the time.
as far as through tenons. they did not take much time. cutting the slot was fast and could be done on a router table really fast. the only real time was making the wedges. that I would have to figure out how to make them faster. they fit perfectly so no time tweaking them. but they do look cool.
the disadvantage of a recessed tenon is the dado needs to be cut from the back side they any work on the top has to be done in a separate operation. so any time saved on not making through tenons would be lost in setup on the top decoration.
I will finish this up today and post some pics.

[Steve knight]

here it is all sanded and a couple of coats. oops sanding through cheap ply (G)