Day 14, My Stepstool
Back to a project that I made: a simple stepstool. I am about six four, so it isn't all that often that I need a simple step stool to reach things, but in my garage I have a couple of shelves which are just beyond comfortable reach, and occasionally it would be good to have a simple, sturdy, and safe step stool.
This is one I tinkered together from some scrap 1x10 that I had lying around in about an hour. You might think that it is not anything really amazing, and in a sense you are correct. But it is constructed along the lines of a traditional form: the six board chest. Since this is not a chest, it doesn't have a lid, and is constructed from just five boards.
- the top
- two side pieces
- and two rails
It's almost completely lacking in what might be called joinery. It is held together with nails. No glue. No mortises. No tenons. And yet I feel absolutely confident in its ability to hold my rather substantial mass without collapsing. It has very little waste, and goes together quite quickly.
I began with a pine 1x10. I cut two pieces about 9" long to serve as the ends. I then laid out a couple of triangles to narrow the feet and give it a better chance of sitting on uneven surfaces.
I then cut two more pieces about 16" long, one of which will be the top, the other will be ripped down the middle to become the rails. I trimmed the corners off one side of each rail just as an aesthetic choice. It does not much matter what these dimensions are, you can adapt these to whatever size lumber you have, or what your needs are. You will cut a recess in both sides of the end panels that will hold the front and back rails. I laid them out and cut them with a handsaw, but a jigsaw or a bandsaw would also work just fine. The idea is that the side rails will rest on these end pieces, and the nails that will hold them all together won't bear any portion of the weight that is placed on the top.
And, I just nailed it together. I inset the ends an inch or so, so I would be able to screw in a carrying handle without having it portrude from the end, but you can do it however. I used some random galvanized nails that I had lying around. Then, a coat of stain and rubbed in some mineral oil and beeswax, and attached the handle. I also applied my "brand" that I made (which will probably make an appearance in a later installement of Garage Gems).
It's light weight but sturdy and useful. I have only half of those qualities, and only intermittently at that.
There are all sorts of step stool designs out there, and you could probably build something fancier. But in terms of economy in material, time and usefulness, I think this scores pretty high. It didn't take enough time to really even quality as a project.
My wife sometimes steals it to use in the kitchen. I should probably make another.
Happy Tuesday all.