Creating the stool top
- Choose 3 or 4 pieces of 2x4 that look good together. Decide which sides will face up. Consider alternating grain direction for added strength. Consider mixing wood types and colors for added interest. Consider how best to distribute knots to add interest to the design. Avoid placing knots near leg joint locations.
- Lay the pieces on your workbench and arrange them as you would like the top to look. Clamp them lightly together and draw the design onto the top. To make it easier to accurately realign the pieces later, draw some cross marks across the joints on the bottom surface.
- Carefully measure and mark where the legs will go. For a stable stool, the leg joints must be very evenly spaced. The leg joints for a typical three-legged stool are arranged in a perfect triangle (all sides and angles of equal length). To avoid possible stool failure, ensure there is at least 1" of wood between each leg and the sides of the stool. Ensure that no knots or other flaws are close to where the legs attach to the top. Check both sides for potential problems--top and bottom!
- Unclamp the top and carefully smooth each glue surface. Use a good straightedge and check for daylight between each joint.
- Once all edges are straight, clean and smooth, glue them together, ensuring they are arranged according to your original design. To save time later, check that the stool top is as smooth as possible. Clamp the seat and set aside for about 20 minutes. When using very porous wood, such as redwood, avoid wiping off extra glue that squeezes out as this can make it much more difficult to sand later.
- After 20 minutes, the extra glue will be leathery. It is very easy to remove that this point. Simply scrape it off. The small amount that remains can be easily sanded later.
- Leave the clamps on and set the top aside to dry overnight.
- Using handsaws, gouges, etc., cut the outside shape (or perimeter) of the seat, and carve the outside bevel.
- Finetune the shape as required for your design.
- Sand all surfaces, working up from 80 grit to 100 grit, to 150 grit. For most students 150 grit is enough. For a very fine surface, motivated students can continue on to 250 and 320 grit.
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There are several reasons. First, large wood is increasingly expensive and difficult to find. Unfortunately, careless human harvesting of ancient forests has destroyed most of the world's great trees. Second, laminated tops are often stronger than those carved from a single piece of wood. This is because natural flaws in the wood are distributed randomly among the different pieces of laminated wood. A single piece of wood is more likely to contain a flaw (knot, split, etc.) that goes from one side of the stool to the other. |
