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Hanging Tool Cabinet – Shelf
The bottom of the cabinet consists of two drawers topped with a shelf. The shelf is carefully fitted using dados and through mortises.
The dados come first, one on each side. Laying them out carefully, I placed both pieces together marked with a knife and then began work with a chisel followed by the router plane. The router plane is the most used plane I own beside my number 4. If you are new to hand tool woodworking it is a must have tool. I use a Veritas model, but there are many others out there.
In a short period of time the dados were complete.
Bench Stool Finished
When I completed my tool chest over a year ago I purchased a can of paint which has stayed on the corner of the kitchen counter. Red chili did not seem to be right for the chest so I submit it here as a possible color for the completed stool. A couple of thoughts as I finish this project.
1. How in the world did it take this long?
2. I don’t really like working in soft woods!
3. It was fun making the tenons and mortises especially with the angles.
4. The stool is really comfortable.
5. One day I will stage a photograph without the clutter.
6. Onwards to the next project!
Bench Stool in one piece
With all of the parts complete, I attached a couple of pieces for the screws and attached the seat.
Next the back support was attached with glue. I am still not sure of the size and shape of the back support but it is now attached.
Fin
Finally the seat is attached using screws.
Of course who could forget the little repair needed when I sent the chisel through the leg.
Seat shaping
Throughout the past week time was spent shaping the stool seat. As demonstrated by Paul Sellers I used a #7 gouge. This is my first experience with this tool and it has been fun. Took a little time to work out the sharpening technique, but all is well.
The most surprising aspect is how little time it took to get the shape I wanted. If I am calculating correctly approximately two hours over a couple of evenings. There are a few areas that need to be smoothed and some shaping in the front to ease the edges, but the bulk of the work has been completed. In the background of the photograph is the plane that I began last winter specifically for this project. It worked fairly well and helped with the smoothing after using the gouge. Doing this project again I would make a smaller plane.
Stool Seat
A stool is not very functional without a seat. As brought up by one of my friends in a comment, I will be carving a tractor style seat for the stool. It is a little intimidating but I have to begin carving.
I began preparing wood for the seat and after several frustrating minutes trying to match edges realized that I was using the wrong tool. Swapping from a Stanley #4 to a #5 it only took a couple of swipes to flatten the ends and make a perfect match. I have been doing so much finish planing lately that I didn’t think about the advantages of a slightly longer plane.
While the glue dried, I went ahead and glued up the stool.
Shaping the Stool Legs
It’s the subtle shaping of wood that adds character to a piece. Although I am only making a stool for my shop it’s fun to add a little lightness to the piece by trimming some wood from the legs.
Shop Stool Arches
After cutting out patterns for the arches in the stool rails. I began to cut the arches themselves. It did not take long (the first arch) to recognize that the shape did not look right. Standing back and staring for several minutes, (which is standard operating procedure when we don’t know what to do) I realized that I needed a shallower arch.
The shallower arch provides a feeling of strength and grace, ok it’s only a stool! I enjoyed cutting the arches using my usual method of saw, chisel and spokeshave.
My chisel skills continue to improve and thus my confidence grows. The upper arches are tighter than the lower and my flat bottom spokeshave struggled with the curve. The curved spokeshave being more difficult to use then the flat prompted me to just ease the curve with my chisel which worked well.
I will shape the legs this weekend and prepare the blank for the seat.
