Shaker Step Stool...Complete

The step stool is complete.  It was finished with danish oil and wipe on poly.

A few extra coats of poly on the steps for added protection. The birds-eye figure really shines with a bit of depth to the finish.

I am pleased with the results of my dovetailing efforts.  

The few minor gaps I ended up with were easily filled and almost invisible.

Next up...refinishing the dining room table.

Then maybe a side table for the downstairs living room.

Shaker Step Stool...part III

Over this past weekend I was able to get the rest of the dovetails cut for the shaker step stool.  Here it is, dry fit to check alignment.  So far so good.

On Sunday, Nick and I took a trip down the hill to run some errands.  One of the things I picked up was some Old Brown Glue.  I have been thinking about trying liquid hide glue for awhile and thoughts this would be a great opportunity as I was sure that glueing the dovetails would result in a lot of squeeze out. Some quick feedback from the guys on the MWA G+ community while we were driving convinced me that the OBG was the way to go for liquid hide glue.

When it came time to glue the steps in place...I learned a few things.  You do get a lot of squeeze out glueing dovetails, liquid hide glue makes things nice and slippery for assembly.....and I need some shorter clamps.

Did I mention that I need some shorter clamps?  or just more clamps in general.  I should have glued each of the front stretchers separately or at least used a caul across the front of them.

Out of the clamps, not too bad.  Still needs some cleanup.  Hardest part about cleaning up the endgrain of the tails was clamping the stool well enough to keep the plane from just chattering across. I was glad I spent the time sharping all the plane irons as birdseye maple end grain is tough stuff, even with a sharp blade.

The other thing that I bought while out and about on sunday was a Bosch random orbit sander and a stack of sanding disks.  The disks were on clearance at Rockler, I'm guessing because they are 5 hole disks.  Luckily they seem to work just fine with the 8 hole sander.  Attaching the shop vac was not terribly successful as the hose I have is pretty stiff and I felt that there was too much suction to allow the sander to really work properly.  After working with the sander for a couple days I can say that the built in dust collection is so good I may not even mess with trying to get a better setup for the shop vac.  I've still been wearing a respirator, but I can sand without getting covered in dust. 

Here it is, all cleaned up and rough sanded.  I still have a few more areas to touch up and then its time to do the finish sanding and get some finish on it.

Shaker step stool..part II

Some progress and some questions.  I put some finish on a few offcuts and I am pleased with how the wood looks.

The dovetails for the lower step are also done and came out pretty decent for my first attempt in thicker stock.  Tried a few different techniques but found that the hand saw worked best for cutting to my marks and then using the band saw to hog out most of the waste before cleaning them up with the chisels.

Not to bad, definitely room for improvement though.

Lower step dry fit.  I am thinking about cutting about an inch off the height.  It is currently 10 inches with the stop step at 20.  I think 8 or 9 inches might be perfect.

Shaker Step Stool...part 1

It's been a few weeks since the last project wrapped up so it feels good to dig into something new.  The step stool designs I had been playing with just weren't exciting me, I like them but there is something missing still.  Last week I ran to the hardwood supply at lunch to check out their monthly specials.  They had cherry and birdseye maple on sale.  In the future I should probably plan on going before the very end of the month so the pile isn't quite so picked over, but I did manage to find a couple boards that I liked.  The cherry had nice color but had some defects and the maple had pretty heavy birdseye figure but again had some large defects.  It occurred to me that this wood might make a really nice shaker style step stool.

http://lumberjocks.com/assets/pictures/projects/192660-438x.jpg?1296015844

Something Like this.... but with the birdseye maple for the steps.  This evening I got all the pieces milled.  One of the longer cherry parts had a slight bow, not sure yet whether I am going to try and deal with that or not. I think that once everything goes together it should be slight enough that it won't cause any problems.

All the pieces laid out on the bench.  I'm not certain about the proportions yet, I might make the 1st step a bit lower, it is at 10 inches now.

Images of the two side panels to be.  These won't be glued up until after the dovetails are cut for the steps.

It is a bit hard to see in the picture but this board had some pretty consistently heavy birdseye figure.

This should be a fun project and will be a good bit of practice cutting dovetails.