Children's Stepstools

[James Watson]

I just completed these stools as Christmas gifts for my niece & nephew. (I made 3, hoping that at least 2 would be worth giving )

Thanks to Gordon Eyre for sharing his dimensions for "London's Wood Stool" (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...n-s-Wood-Stool)

Woods are walnut, red oak, and cherry (all from Danny Hamsley's farm, BTW).

So far, I've only applied a couple of applications of BLO. I'm torn as to whether I should finish them any further. I'm sure they'll be subject to wet conditions (bathroom sinks, etc.), but I don't want to do anything that will cause them to be dangerously slippery, either. Any thoughts?



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[Chad Easterling]

I've used some stuff from Lowes before that you put into paint/varnish to provide traction. It is a very fine, clear grit that you add to the liquid and then apply. It works really good.

This is something similar to what I used- http://www.lowes.com/pd_6656-90-2566...ives&facetInfo=

Maybe use it just on the tops of the stools?

Chad

[Craig Michael]

I wouldn't do much more, they look great and kid's don't baby things. These are not going to look this good in a year, so I wouldn't think of them as furniture. From my experience with kids and stools, they don't really get them wet much and even with painted or other finished stools, they don't have an issue with slipping.

[Bobby O'Neal]

Those look really nice. How'd you cut the through mortises?

[Peter J Lee]

Nice simple design - well done. I don't know if there is an issue with using it over the BLO, but shellac still works on floors, so it would do battle with little ones. In a year or whenever you could put a little in a jar and scuff sand and then wipe on a coat on the step surface and wherever it might be worn to freshen them up.

[James Watson]

The mortises were the toughest part for this novice. I couldn't come up with a good technique to accurately scribe the boundaries, so I wound up using a router w/a template and guide bushing, followed by a chisel to square the corners.

Of course, that meant I needed a way to create an accurate template. To do that, I ripped a piece of plywood into 7 strips which represented the widths of the mortises and the spaces in between them (+/- the guide bushing offset). I then cross-cut the pieces that represented the mortises, and I edge-glued it all back together. This gave me nice, parallel sides and square corners. The template is a little fragile, but it held together well enough for my purposes.

I also delayed cutting the tapered sides until after the mortises were done - this gave me a waste area to screw the template to the workpiece.

There are certainly less cumbersome ways to do it, but this worked for me with the skills & tools I had at hand.


Thanks for the finish suggestions. I think I'm gonna leave them be for now, and offer to freshen them up if needed down the road.

[David Lawhorn]

these are very nice indeed.
can you point me to some plans or perhaps telling me the dimensions of the stepstool, just height, width and length?

thanks.

[James Watson]

The top is 16-3/4 x 11-1/4 max. I think I used about a 40" radius on both.
The sides are 13-3/4 at the bottom and 8-1/2 at the top.
Stringers are 14" long and 2-1/2" wide, with 1/2 x 2" tenons.
All 3 stringers and both sides have the same curve. I don't remember the radius, but I think it's about 9" wide and 3/4(+) deep.
Overall height is 11".

Again, this is not my design. I got it from Gordon, who, IIRC, adapted it from a magazine plan. Take a look at the thread I linked above for more pics/details.

[Gordon Eyre]

You did well James, glad I could help out with the details for you. As I mentioned I have made 12 or 13 of these stools and the kids love them.

[David Lawhorn]

Thanks for the information, I appreciate it.
I can't wait to start on y sample for "management" approval.

[Todd Burch]

Clever idea on the template and screwing it to the waste wood. If mine, I would do 3 coats of 1/3 BLO, 1/3 Turpentine and 1/3 mineral spirits.