Earlier I made a post where I made a Foot Stool / Leg Rest. I'm now making a 2nd one. It looks like I'll be making more as well. I didn't expect this. I guess everyone likes to put their feet up as they watch TV and snack on dessert. Lol.

I went to Rona (similar to Home Depot) and found some real nice Pine. I bought some 2" x 3" x 8' and 1" x 6" x 8' for this project. Here it is just being unloaded from my jeep.

I unwrapped the lumber and set up my saw to start making the Legs first. The finished size will be 2" x 2" x 14-1/2".

I cut two lengths of the 2 x 3s a little longer then 14-1/2" long and will trim to final size later. I cut 4 sets and then will laminating them.

I'm now ready for the next step.

Stayed tuned.....!

Cheers!

MrRick

Edited May 17May 17 by MrRick

Following along!

Thank you kindly lew!

The Saga continues...

Normally I use Titebond III wood glue but gave Titebond's Hide glue a chance. I wanted to check the strength. Apparently Titebond Liquid Hide Glue (3,591 PSI) is generally considered very strong but slightly less strong than Titebond III (4,000 PSI). However for laminating I believe it should be okay.

I took all the sets and spread hide glue on them and clamped them up.

When they dried, I marked the final size up with my Veritas Micro-Adjust Wheel Marking Gauge

Next I'll be hand planing them to final size.

Stayed tuned. More to come!!

Cheers!

MrRick

Edited May 17May 17 by MrRick

Looking very interesting

Continuing the journey....

After marking up, I remove some surface all around and full length on each leg. I get it get close to the 2" x 2" finish size so I can hand plane to finish. Here I'm oiling the bottom of my Veritas Low Angle Jack Plane in preparation.

I then lightly place pencil lines on each side of the legs surface so I can see my planing progress.

Then I start my planing.....

Placing pencil lines on the surface is a very useful technique when hand planing. You can see exactly where you have missed when planing and/or where the surface is lower in that area. It's a good way to monitor your planing work.

When planing adjacent surfaces leave a beautiful sharp corner. However they can be fragile and susceptible to light ding marks so I make a quick light pass on the corner edge with 220 grit sandpaper. It still looks sharp afterwards but not as fragile.

Here I'm checking for flatness and squareness all around on each leg. I'm holding it up to a florescent light behind it while checking. They are looking nice!

Thanks for looking.

The journey continues.

Stay tuned! More to come ...

MrRick

Edited May 18May 18 by MrRick

Mortising the legs....

The journey continues by mortising the legs for all the rails. There are many ways to do mortising as you all know. I prefer to cut the mortises first and then cut the tenons to fit the mortises. This technique is preferred because it is easier to "sneak up" on a perfect fit by adjusting the tenon's cheeks rather than trying to resize the mortise hole.

This is my reasoning:

Mortise First:

I often chops the mortise, or in many cases, drill out the waste followed by cleaning the cavity and edges with a mortise chisel and bevel chisel.

Fitting:

Then the tenon is then cut and adjusted, often using a hand saw and shoulder plane, until it slides into the mortise with a perfect fit.

Accuracy:

While I could cut tenons to fit immediately, cutting the mortise first allows for high accuracy and reduces the risk of having to scrap a piece of wood due to a loose mortise.

This approach ensures the mortise is accurately established first, making the final assembly tighter and stronger.

I start by laying out and marking up each mortise using my Veritas Micro-Adjust Wheel Marking Gauge They will be 1/4" wide. Then I lightly go over with a pencil.

My tenons will be 1/4" wide x 3/4" long. I make the width a tad bigger to pare down to fit the mortise.

Thanks for looking.

The journey continues.

Stay tuned! More to come ...

MrRick

Mortising the legs.... continues...

Now I move to the drill press to start hogging out the meat of each mortise.

Here I set up a scribe line on the side of the leg that is a wee bit deeper than the 3/4" tenon depth.

I chuck up a 3/16" Brad point bit in my drill press and set the depth to match this mark. I use a slightly smaller bit then the finished size I want so I can sneak up on acheiving the final width by chisel paring.

Here the drilling begins....

Then I remove the rest with my mortise and bevel edged chisels.

Thanks for looking.

The journey continues.

Stay tuned! More to come ...

MrRick

Moving right along, looks good. That is some nice clean pine.

Thank you @DuckSoup ! It is indeed very pretty pine.

Mortising the legs complete. The journey continues...

Now all the mortising is done for all the legs.

Making the Rails

Next I cut all the rails and made the tenons. The last footstool that I made I did it with all hand tools. This time I set up a stop block on my tablesaw sled and made the tenons. They are slightly larger than 1/4" and will be "fitted" to each mortise by paring. Here a quick view of the process:

Here's a test fit:

I'm happy. It's looking good!

Here's all of them done:

Next I'll make the tambour stiles.

Thanks for looking!

Stay tuned! More to come ...

MrRick

You are moving right along!

Thanks lew. So far so good!!

Nice crisp mortices

Thanks @Gerald ! I try. 🙂

Nice work. lovely pine.

The best part is you are using tools from my favorite place. Woohoo!

@Handfoolery Thank you! Yes.. this particular piece of Pine was a gem and joy to work with for sure. And yeah.. Lee Valley Veritas tools are hard to beat!! I loved working there.

15 minutes ago, MrRick said:

@Handfoolery Thank you! Yes.. this particular piece of Pine was a gem and joy to work with for sure. And yeah.. Lee Valley Veritas tools are hard to beat!! I loved working there.

I've said it before, but I love that they are not afraid to do something totally different, and I've never held anything of theirs in my hands that wasn't awesome.

If I had the cash to do it all over again pretty much every tool I use would come from them, MHO, but they just do it right.

I checked out your first foot stool thread as well. Love it.

Besides. the little boy in me loves to use "batman's saws" 😀

Ha ha! Too funny Mike!! Thanks again. The joy in the journey is awesome!!!