Footstools

My in-laws bought a pair of leather gliders along with ottomans. If you've ever fed a baby, you know this is the first class way to go. We have twins, therefore the twin gliders. Unfortunately, the ottomans don't do a good job of getting the knees up to help support the baby when bottle feeding. I was "commissioned" to make a pair of footstools to match the ones we had at home. They're not too big, I probably had enough scrap in the basement. The slats are 12 1/2" wide, the height of the base piece, without slats, is about 5 1/2".

Below is the prototype. Note the "nail and fill" construction method. Could I get myself to use nails on good hardwood? I decided to dowel pin the stretchers to the legs, and screw the slats to the base, then cover the screws with plugs.

First, a template of the legs on the prototype. I traced it on a piece of paper, then transferred the shape onto a piece of 1/4" hardboard. Notice that there are two cutouts to position the stretchers. These were cut out after using the template for the legs.

Using the template, leg blanks were traced onto some 3/4" maple. The legs were then cut out a little oversized using a bandsaw. Double-sided sticky tape attached the template to the blanks, and a pattern bit made quick work to make 4 matching legs. A 1/4" roundover was applied to the bottom and sides. Stretchers were cut out of 3/4" maple.

Note that I made cutouts for the stretchers on the template after using it to cut the legs. The cutouts made locating dowel holes on the leg for the stretchers a cinch. After drilling two holes on the ends of each stretcher, dowel centers located the dowel holes on the legs. The cutouts on the template made sure the location of each stretcher was the same. The individual maple pieces were finished using a water based polyurethane, then assembled.

I'd been looking for a project to use the leftover jatoba flooring from our kitchen remodel. This seemed to be a good time to do something nice with it. The browns and reds should contrast nicely with the light colored maple legs. The prototype used 7 1/2" thick, 1-1/2" wide slats. If I replicated this in the 3" wide tongue and groove flooring, I'd end up with lots of waste. Cutting off the groove left about 2 3/4" of wood. I cut this right down the middle, then used my planer to bring it down to 1.1" (I like to use calipers, so decimal measurements are allowed). After running the slat blanks through the planer again to remove the back grooves on the flooring, and also to clean up the front, the slats were down to 1/2" thick. Allowing for a gap between the slats, I figured nine 1.1" slats would just about take the place of seven 1 1/2" ones. Half inch diameter, quarter inch depth countersinks were cut using a Forstner bit chucked on a drill press. A fence and stop block made sure each countersink was centered on the slat and equidistant from each end. Holes and chamfers for the screws were predrilled. Edges were softened with a quarter inch roundover bit. The bottom and sides of the slats were finished using an oil based polyurethane prior to assembly.

Below you can see a simple jig out of MDF to center the slats on the base. The slats were spaced out using old business cards to where it looked right. The predrilled slat holes were used as leg start holes for the screws. The first slat was carefully positioned and screwed into place, then each successive one spaced and drilled in succession. Maple plugs hide the screws. After sanding, the top as finished using three coats of the oil based polyurethane.

The finished product. They get delivered tomorrow.