It's A Step Up

    Looking back over my short career as a woodworker apprentice, I realized that the project that I have built the most often is the common old step stool.  Some people have requested one.  Some I just built for a gift.  It seems like you can not go wrong giving a step stool for a gift.  (My theory is that in life all the good things are just a little bit out of reach.  Therefore everyone could use a step stool.)    Looking back, I have built different styles of a step stool, but sometimes it is not the appearance that counts as much as the stability of the stool that is important.  (I guess I have made some that seem to tip over easily once you are on the step.  Not good.)  Recently it was requested that I make a couple more and that was the project for this week.   It was also my idea to try and work in the scroll saw projects that were done last week.

Once again, we sourced some boards out of Shawn and Vanessa's old house.   The one that they are in the process of tearing down.    These were some pine boards that were varnished and used as siding on the inside wall of the porch.   They had a few nail holes, but over all they were in pretty good shape.  (Now I wished I had grabbed a few more of these.)  The plan was to make two stools.   One would be a copy of a stool that we had at our home and the other would be the same stool, but a little higher and would include a step.  

    The picture to the right shows all the boards after they have been cut to size.    It also shows the stool that we have in our house which is the one that I plan to copy.   (The one in our house is not one that I made, but one that the wife bought on a garage sale.   Isn't that the way it goes sometimes? I make stuff for everyone else, but fail to rack up the points at home.  Hmmm.)    I did glue some of these boards together to make larger boards and I also filled in any nail holes with wood putty.   I used a mixture of joinery using pocket hole joints in some places and dowel joints in others.  

   The picture to the left shows the end results.    I glued the trains on the short one and I glued the little valentine hearts on the bigger one.   I used a dark stain and put on a couple coats of varnish.   They turned out okay for being made out of a bunch of scrap wood.     I'm not sure about adding the little figures on the side, but it was something different for me to try.    One is for a little "train" nut and the other is for a little sweetheart.

Evan - age 5 - and Bianca age 3