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Thread: Bar Stools WIP

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
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    Default Bar Stools WIP

    So I had some spare timber lying around the place and I decided it's been a while since I made a stool. As it happens the wife just got a new easel for her drawing and i thought it might make a good seat to pair with it. Anyway, i completed the stool based on a simple design i had in my head and as i was finishing applying the last coat of danish oil my parent dropped in and mentioned how much they liked the design and how it would be good if they could replace their old plastic cheapo set they have.....so off we go to the timber supply.

    Here is the "prototype" one off that i made. Just simple 3/4in dowels with legs that are 5 degrees offset in each direction. The top is attached with through dowels as well.
    IMG_20140715_084225[1].jpg

    Since I will be making another four of these I thought it best to actually make a "jig" to hold the legs in place while i drill the dowel holes (needs to be done before i cut the 5 degree angles) since the last time i did this i kinda just held it in place and that wasn't super safe, you can imagine a 700mm piece of hardwood spinning at 500rpm when it grabs onto the forstner bit you are trying to retract.... oops.

    So i cobbled together this jig below with some scrap. Worked quite well...and much safer. The poor cheapo forstner bit wasn't too happy about all the end grain it had to cut through though. Unfortunately I ordered a new tungsten tipped one a bit too late and i just couldn't wait to get started. More sharpening in my future i suspect to keep the cheapo HCS bit alive long enough to finish this project.
    IMG_20140716_174113.jpgIMG_20140716_174119.jpg

    Next it will be time to cut the angles on the legs and do some jointing on the blackwood pieces for the tops. The legs are recycled messmate (vic ash i think) from a piece of 170x40 that I ripped down to 40x40 on my bandsaw (since i don't have a tablesaw due to space restriction).

    More soon.

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  3. #2
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    Oct 2008
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    Leopold, Victoria
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    Looking good and waiting for the next instalment.
    The floor mounted drill is very handy for this type of work. Unfortunately many years ago when I brought mine I brought a bench mounted one. It still stands at the same height, but is mounted on a stand which still doesn't allow long pieces to be drilled.
    I never used to worry about making jigs, but nowdays they are getting made more and more even if I have to only make a few of the one item.

  4. #3
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    Default

    Like the stool.

    In the prototype did you offset the dowels for the legs?

  5. #4
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Christos View Post
    Like the stool.

    In the prototype did you offset the dowels for the legs?
    Thanks Christos,

    I thought about offsetting the dowels but I didn't like the idea aesthetically so I opted instead to glue two sides at a time and then drill through the leg with one dowel already in place (through the dowel) to create the through hole for the other dowels. I know it's probably not the strongest solution but I like the look so i'll live with it.

    Cheers
    mat

  6. #5
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    Default small progress

    I don't have a planer or thicknesser so the weekend meant a trip to my parents place to use Dad's combo machine. I just needed to clean up the legs since the bandsaw doesn't leave the smoothest surface (crappy welds on the blades) and get the blackwood pieces ready for glue up for the tops.

    Anyway, I couldn't do much else at my place so I got out the bandsaw and cut the legs to size with a 5 degree lean to each side. For the prototype I did a bunch of calculating and actually cut these angles on the drop saw while holding the leg on one of it's corners (so that the cut would go diagonally across the top/bottom of the leg at 7degrees, which equates to about 5 degrees in each direction). Basically I was doing it in an unnecessarily complex way. This time around i realised that if i just set the bandsaw to be tilted at 5 degrees and used a mitre gauge at 5 degrees i would get the same result.

    Using an extended fence i was also able to get the legs to be all the same length, unlike my previous attempt where i marked everything out and cut it carefully.

    IMG_20140717_170151.jpgIMG_20140717_170204.jpg

    i also managed to joint the blackwood and glue up the panel that will go into making the seat tops. So looking forward to cutting the circles tonight. Another workout for the bandsaw.

  7. #6
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    Default circles

    The overnight glue up was a success with a nice flat board the end product. That was promptly cut into three pieces and the circle jig for the bandsaw for dusted off and put straight into action. It's moments like these that help you understand why you bought that large expensive piece of equipment that you probably could have done without.

    IMG_20140721_171531.jpgIMG_20140721_173400.jpgIMG_20140721_171447.jpg

    I must have set the 3/8in blade up particularly well too since it was cutting like a champ. I think that most times I don't really spend enough times getting the blade guides quite right, they were perfect this time though.

  8. #7
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    Really an amazing feeling when things just work out.

  9. #8
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    Good work. I like to see ingenuity overcome restriction. An excellent result.

  10. #9
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    Aug 2012
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    Geelong
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    Default weekend progress

    We had some fine weather on the weekend so there wasn't a lot of work done on the project. Never the less I did manage to do some drilling and sanding on the legs, half of them anyway. I also assembled a couple of forms from scrap that will help me keep things at the correct angles and identical between the four seats. It will help with the glue up so that I don't have to measure each section separately.

    IMG_20140726_142349.jpgIMG_20140726_142514.jpg

    The drill press table came in handy again although I did find that the stop block I was using was slipping somehow, not sure why, it was tight the fence was tight, the table was tight and yet the first set of legs differs fom the last set by 2-3mm. It's not a massive crisis. I will fix it by pairing the legs that are close so that they fit properly. I'm confident it will work since i tried it already in a dry assembly.

    On to more sanding tonight and hopefully getting some glue down as well.

  11. #10
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    Default assembly starts....slowly

    I don't have a lot of time up my sleeve when I finish work for the day so I only get a couple of hours in the garage most nights. Last night I used that time to sand all the dowels down. I just clamp one end in my wood vise and then go through the grits from 80-180 using a kitchen sponge as the sanding pad, it works well cos it's soft enough to bend around the 19mm dowel, it protects my hands from the heat generated and the scourer pad grips onto the paper/velcro backing of my half used sanding disks. The vise works well to since it holds the piece in place so you can sand aggressively. I've done rods in the past in my hands (holding with one hand and sanding with the other) and found it to be much more taxing, at least for dowels longer than 1.8m.

    A bit of cutting later to get the lengths I needed and i was ready to put together my first couple of pairs of legs. Luckily I also remembered that the spacing between the top of the legs was not what counted when fitting the tops, it's actually the diagonal between opposing leg pairs. With that in mind I had to adjust my clamping forms so that the legs were closer, otherwise my tops would have been too small to cover the legs, a mistake that I made on my first set of stools which now reside in my kitchen (luckyily on those the tops are raised on top of a lazy susan bearing so it's not such and obvious issue).

    Anyway, here is last night's result and the sanded and cut dowels in the background.
    IMG_20140728_183119[1].jpg

  12. #11
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    Hi Lplates

    you can skip the Red and green "Ps" and move onto a full licence
    regards from Alberta, Canada

    ian

  13. #12
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    You are making it look very easy.

    But I know that it is time consuming. Will continue to watch your progress from the current relaxed position that I am in.

  14. #13
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    Default getting close now

    Firstly thank you for your kind words, not sure if I can move away from the L's just yet since I still manage to learn what not to do too often.

    I've been doing a few small things when and where i can this week. Finished the sanding of the legs and dowels, got all the leg pairs glued up using my forms. Then realised that the forms weren't really enough to keep things flat and square since some of the dowels were warped and bent. It doesn't matter since that should correct itself when i put the tops on....i hope...actually if i use the forms for the final leg glue up it should be enough to keep things square. I think i'll be using epoxy for that step since the PVA i've been using goes off too quickly, especially where the dowels are a tight fit....surprise surprise the dowels aren't all the correct dimensions either, 19mm indeed. No use complaining, moving along.

    So yesterday I finally had all the leg pairs together and it was time to drill out the holes for the last of the dowels. First I had to plane down the existing protruding dowel ends so that I could put the leg pair against a fence on my drill press. I found that using my little dovetail saw was actually easier than using the flush cut since that tends to leave tooth scratches on underlying wood (it's a crappy FatMax stanley flush cut saw). I cut away most of the dowels and then plane flat(ish) with my block plane which probably needs yet another sharpening, cheap Indian (or chinese?) steel.

    IMG_20140731_162426[1].jpgIMG_20140731_165129[1].jpgIMG_20140731_175137[1].jpg

    So now we're ready for the glue again and then more sanding to make things pretty. Then tops will need some attention soon too.

  15. #14
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    Default getting close to the tricky part

    I've been away at the snow for a few days so I haven't had a lot of time to spend on the project but i did manage to do some sanding on the tops on the weekend. In fact i finished off all the edges so now all there is left to do with the tops is to cut the holes which will be tricky as i've already got the bases assembled and they aren't all millimeter perfect despite my efforts using the forms it seems that the warping of the dowels was enough to move things out of square. It's close on the diagonals but not so much on the sides. I might have to do some "convincing" when it comes down to it. I will try it out soon and see how i go.

    I also slowly glued up all the remainder of the legs pair into the bases that i needed. I used epoxy for the second part of the glue up which was much easier in terms of the open time for the glue but it did make a bit of a mess in some of the joints where squeezeout got onto the legs, nothing some sanding wont fix...oh sanding, how i loathe thee.

    IMG_20140806_172626.jpgIMG_20140806_172649.jpg

    Shouldn't be too far off now, just clean up the dowel ends, sand, drill and fit the tops, clean up some more dowel ends, sand again and then apply finish. Remind me again why i agreed to make more stools.

  16. #15
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    if you cover the bits where you don't want the glue to go with painter's tape cleanup will be much easier.
    Just strip the tape as the glue goes tacky.
    regards from Alberta, Canada

    ian

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