Step stool

[Dan_Shade]

I slapped together a step stool in the evenings over the past week or so (not sure when I started.  Design heavily influenced by a Frank Klausz step stool in an old American Woodworker magazine article. (Dec 1999 issue). 

I hand planed the flat surfaces after running them through the thickness planer.

The wood is poplar, stained with walnut stain, I rolled up the stain rag and pressed it in a few spots, to fake figured wood.  This would work well with the hands of a more talented artist than me.

Next I rolled the rag over the surface, that made a very interesting pattern.

I sprayed it with minwax polyurethane out of a spray can.

[Dan_Shade]

 

 

 

 

[metalspinner]

Is the "rag roll" the curly looking figure?
I like the old magazines.  So many projects are doggy eared. I'll get to them some day. 😉

[Dan_Shade]

The dark diagonal lines are where I pressed the rolled up rag.

The "curly" figure is from rolling it.

I got the idea from Tage Frid's book. 

[Dan_Shade]

There's a few plane tracks in there too!

This is a stool to help the wee one reach the sink easier for hand washing, so I decided to play a bit 

[Larry]

Great job!

Step stools are another quick project that are really appreciated by those vertically impaired folks.

[Dan_Shade]

Yeah, I like the designs with a tall back or side, being able to grab hold is helpful in maintaining balance. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Neat stool. Reminds me of a potty chair I saw with a tiny stool with a cut out for a training pot. It was shaped kind of like an arm chair with a small magazine rack on one side and a toilet paper holder on the other. I kept seeing the image of a small toddler siting on a pot reading his story book while his dad was on the regular throne reading the sports section of the newspaper.

  In Okinawa I saw the Japanese had push toys that were potty chairs so the kids got trained using their favored toys at the same time. Pretty neat idea. The pot had a removable cover as the seat which could be removed for regular play.

[jbjbuild]

Great job on the dovetails!

[Texas Ranger]

OK, I have to be delicate on this one.  Years ago we had a lady friend (still our friend) that was short in stature but very well endowed.  Her complaint was that kitchen counter tops were at a height that when she did dishes her anatomy would become wet from the counter top.  She did not ask for, but, I built a step stool to give her some height over the counter top.  The top silhouette was cut to represent her anatomy.  My wife then used her artistic ability to paint the top to represent her anatomy in its full glory, the image taken from the internet.

At the time we had a regular Friday night church choir get together.  When the project was completed we presented the stool, wrapped appropriately, to her at the get together.

My wife and I acquired a new appreciation of our mutual artistic ability, and probably a new social status.

Sorry, but discretion prevents photographs of the project.

[Old Greenhorn]

OK, I have to be delicate on this one.  ......

Sorry, but discretion prevents photographs of the project.

No it doesn't. ;D :D This sounds really cute and well thought out.

[WDH]

I have made a couple too.  They will get passed down in the family.  Dan, I really like yours. 

[Dan_Shade]

I made the one on the left a 6 years ago, it is from the magazine article.  

The larger hole in the shorter one makes it easier to move, I think the tall one is a bit more elegant.  The poplar one is definitely lighter than the oak one!