Unofficial Giant Bomb Woodworking Club - Project 1: The Step Stool

It's like a book club, but for wood working!

This month's project is the humble step stool per Vinny's suggestion in Episode 205 of the Beastcast.

Since this is our first project, I don't think we need to many rules or guidelines - as long as you can step on a thing you make to gain some extra height and it holds your weight, you have been a success. I'm looking forward to a variety of styles, shapes, finishes and materials.

Lets use this thread for questions, suggestions, progress pics, etc.

We have until May 31st to post our final projects, get to work!

This is going to be great motivation to actually get me back in the garage

So I think I'm going to use a modified version of the plans below. I've never done a mortise and tenon joint so I'm going to try something a little out of my comfort zone.

i'm going to go to the lumber yard this week and check out the the prices on some maple, ideally I could find something already jointed on 2 edges and planed because I don't really have a good way of doing that at the moment! I do have some scrap walnut and purpleheart I might find a use for.

Someone should send a telegram to @vinny

Neat idea! I did some woodworking when i was 14 made a tray and a stool. I liked the craftsmanship you have to put in but found out i was allergic to sawdust so i quieted after two projects.

@yothatlimp: I'm also planning on using this as an opportunity to try some tools/techniques that I haven't used before. No real plans though - just a picture in my head, some scribbled ideas, and a few spare boards that I already had on hand. If all goes well, my toddler will be able to reach the sink more easily. Worst case - some extra firewood.

Bummer! I know a proper face mask and ventilated area made a world of difference to me. I started my wood working journey several years ago, but after making a maple wood train for a friend's kid i was sneezing sawdust for the next month and it really put me off for a few years.

Looking forward to checking out your progress! What techniques are you thinking about trying?

@yothatlimp: I recently restored my great-grandfather's hand plane, so I'm eager to work with that, and I'll be doing my first mortise and tenon joinery as well. My wife got me an edge guide for my router that I haven't found a use for yet, so I might figure some way to practice with that too.

Nice!

Today is the day I'm finally able to get to the lumber store, wish me luck! How is everyone's projects going?

Neat! I have been thinking about something in the lines of this for some time. Maybe now is the time! I don't have many good tools and not that much space but I do have a bunch of old pallets, a hand saw, a hammer and my willpower! If I manage to construct anything out of them I'll post it here!

Now is the perfect time to hop in!

We are officially halfway there, I am going to get most the wood working done this weekend, saving next weekend for finishing. I built a pretty bare bones router table I can clamp to my existing out-feed table, it's pretty bare bones but will allow me to round over edges pretty easily.

How's everyone else doing?

This was the last afternoon that I'd have free this month, and I managed to wrap up most of the work. The only thing left is finishing, which is my least favorite part of any project. I almost think I might leave it unfinished since it will only see use for a year or two tops. It's far from perfect, but I was happy to get the practice, and like I said above, it's always fun to use new (or old) tools.

In any case, here is my stool - on the garage floor and in its natural habitat.

Heck yeah, that looks great!

I ran into some family issues so I'm going to be coming in hot, but should be done by the end of this month! I should be posting pictures either today or tommorrow.

Do we have any ideas or suggestions for next months project? I am trying to stick to pretty simple things you don't need a ton of tools for, but you can also shoot for the moon with complexity if you wanted to.

I was thinking about either:

- A picture frame

- A bird house

- A cutting board

@brutal_bisp

I think a bird house could be a good project, just so that I can bend the rules and build a bat box.

Every summer the mosquitoes come out and I start telling myself that I'll build a bat box. The idea, of course is that I'll hopefully have a good place for it so that bats will hopefully move in and then hopefully have a drastic impact on the number of bugs in my yard. It seems like a long shot, so I find other things to do...

I've been putting this off for years, and although June is already shaping up to be pretty busy for me, maybe mentioning this here will finally motivate me to get it done.

Hey, that stool looks good! Haven't had time to do much of anything but I should have my stool done tomorrow.

I'm good with any of those suggestions for the next project.

It's official, our next project is a bird house / bat box!

I'll have my pictures up at some point today!

So I am probably just going to end up using some spray shellac to finish this, but it's been too rainy and humid in my garage for any finish work. I picked this poplar because I loved the stripe of green in the board. The stretcher is some scrap walnut I had hanging around. As you can see from the top photo the top of the stool isn't attached to the legs just yet, I'm going to spray both separately before attaching them with some hardwood dowels. The finished stool is going to be 20" wide and 11 inches tall, I'll post some finished pics when I'm done spraying it!

@yothatlimp: Looks great! Don't forget to post pictures once you apply the finish - I bet that color in the top board will look really nice!

Hoping it will be dry enough tomorrow, I'm getting sick of all this rain here hah.

Congrats on your stool making it on this weeks community corner post!