MicroJig, maker of the Grr-ripper. Work Safer. Work Smarter.
Big shout-out this week to Earshel Futrel for inspiring me
for his design for this step stool.
I've made a couple of different step stools in the past,
but I like this one because of the handle.
The handle serves a couple different purposes:
One, it's easy to move this around from place to place,
you don't have to bend over to pick it up or -more likely-
use your foot to scoot it along the floor.
And it also doubles as a hand rest so you can support yourself
while you're standing on it.
And lastly, if you want to use it as a chair,
you can certainly do that.
This is a good project for me to use some of my scrap wood,
I don't have to buy anything new.
You could either use solid lumber, or
I'm going to use ¾" plywood.
I've taped together the full-sized cutting templates.
I mostly need them to cut out the curves, especially on the legs.
First, I'll cut them down to their square sizes on the tablesaw.
And it's a new day.
I decided to stop and leave it off there yesterday because it was raining so hard
I couldn't get the camera outside to shoot my bandsaw!
I'm going to tape the two leg pieces together with double-sided carpet tape.
I'm attaching the template with spray adhesive.
You probably don't need to attach this template to the platform piece
but it might make cutting these corners a little easier.
I'll drill a 1 ½" hole in the handle.
I probably didn't cut this tenon out to the exact size of my square on the template
so I'm going to make a new mark with an Xacto knife by lining this up.
That should give me a better indication of where to cut.
Over here at my router I'm going to round over all the edges
except for the tops of the legs where it meets up with the platform.
I'm going to square this up with my jigsaw.
And that's how all the master woodworkers make their mortise and tenon joints!
I'm going to join everything together with pocket screws
and I'm going to start with the stretcher between the two legs.
To line this up, I've drawn a center line on these legs.
So I can line up the middle ply of the plywood with that.
I'm going to glue and screw these on.
This one will be easier to put the screws in if I clamp it down.
I can't fit my drill in here so I can use my manual screwdriver instead.
Good, that's all there is to that.
To assemble this I'll start with the handle and just drop it in.
I'll put a little dab of glue under these shoulders.
And I'll flip it over and put the legs on.
I'm going to put some glue on the inside of the tenon
and the top of the legs.
I'm going to clamp this to that tenon, just temporarily.
Make sure it's all lined up.
That should hold it in place long enough to drive in these pocket screws.
In addition to that glue, I'm going to secure the handle with a couple screws.
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I'd like to thank Earshel one more time for inspiring me to build this cool little step stool.
If you'd like to make your own, check down in the description for a free set of plans.
And I'd like to thank you for watching Woodworking for Mere Mortals.
You should know that I post new woodworking videos every Friday on this channel
and I would love to have you subscribe.
In fact, if you do subscribe, you will have already known that
I have more than just Friday videos now.
I started posting "Mere Minis".
They're shorter than these.
Those are on Wednesdays
I'm not sure if they will always be on Wednesdays
but for now I'm posting them on Wednesdays.
So you've got two videos a week on this channel.
Thanks for watching, everybody and I'll see you next Friday.