advice on shortening legs of a barstool

[Rob Blaustein]

My wife picked up a few of these barstools for a song, but they are a few inches too high and I'd like to trim the legs down. She assembled the chair with some screws that were supplied, so it can also be easily disassembled. The trick will be to make a cut that is parallel to the floor and I'm wondering if anyone has an accurate and safe way to do this. I'm not averse to using a hand saw--in fact the only way that comes to my inexperienced mind is to cut a "story" stick to the length that I need to trim, making sure that each end is sqaure, and hold it next to the leg of the chair as I scribe a line around the leg that is parallel to the floor. I would then make a cut that follows the lines. Are there any easy ways to do this with power tools, without making an elaborate jig? The tricky part is that the legs are tapered, and the back legs are angled, so it seems like it would be hard to support them for cutting with something like a miter saw or table saw. I do have a bandsaw, but I don't have a belt or disc sander to correct any errors.

[Ted Shrader]

Rob -

Just mark three of them the length you need (go up from the floor with a reference block) and cut three of them off with a handsaw. Then place the stool on an elevated flat surface such as a counter top, table saw top, etc. with the fourth leg hanging off. Mark the fourth leg. Cut along the mark with a handsaw. All legs will be in the same plane and sit level on a level floor.

Good luck,
Ted

[Doug Shepard]

Cant tell for sure from the pic if the seat is sloped back or parallel with the floor. If it's parallel, you can set it upside down on a flat surface and use a jury rigged heigth gauge to scribe a line around the 2 front legs at the heigth you want. Then for the 2 back legs, put a square on the front legs and extend the lines from the front legs onto the back ones.