# Shop Stool Build Off.. Part 5. The Results

So After the build up..

The design, the timber, then the very busy build weekend, which was great..

The long wait..Votes counted up..and the winner is..

Well...  follow this link between the < > to < Chris Wongs site > ..and all will be revealed..


Great results, thanks to the guy's who made the stools. Their wives and girlfriends for putting up with us all going on about it for weeks.. to the list of sponsors, who made it even more exciting.

Huge thanks must go to Chris Wong who started this whole build.. cheers Chris.

and to those of you who voted.. 750 brilliant..

All the best

Jamie

Stunning... Italian Olive wood country built bed..

A great start to the year..

When I went to see this bed, a few months ago, it was quite a lovely sight to see. The timber is Olive wood and has a beautiful patina, with lots of knots dug out and replaced with small pieces of Olive, in the most simple of ways, that just looked great..and it's heavy..much heavier than you think as you go to pick it up.

The bed has been in the same family for three generations, and there was no way that it was going to be ruined in any way..

The family came to my workshop to see what I do, and what I could do for them. I must admit, at first I got the wrong end of the stick, I was being asked if I could just extend it by 300 or so millimeters.. You just can't add 300 mm to the length of a bed, especially if a teenage boy is the user.. unless I added some more structural timber inside.. So I mentioned cutting the sides down to use as fascia covers over new longer structural rails..this didn't go well either..

A little while later they got back in touch with me to make two new side rails for the bed..in hardwood..So I then suggested that the original rails could be just hung beneath the bed, hanging from the slats..That way the bed could easily be put back to how it was..

So I'm just adding to the history of this piece..it could always go back to how it was...Brilliant.

I didn't take any before pics..

The insides were painted, side rails showing Tenons and hand made bolts..

Just look where the nuts are hidden inside, just behind those infill blocks..cool

This is where new meets old..notice the two notches..

The dowel is to stop the slats from moving around, and it fits the edge of the first slat..

The new rails are in a single piece of Sapele, cut from a 6m length, with some figuring and mottling and it's strong. Not a bad colour match too. All of the tenons were cut buy hand, they had to be, because all of the mortices were different..good fun fitting each one..They weren't straight, or equal, or square.. and they will not be interchangeable. and I never took any timber out of the mortice.

Here are the ends of the new rails. I had to fit the bolts to the centres on the end frames..

so the bolt hole weren't in the middle of the tenons..

Notice the nut holes are behind some end grain pegs or stoppers..just proud..

You can see the difference in lengths, 

but also just how much bow is in the original Olivewood rails

The colours look better in this pic

This is the head end..just 1/4" higher, but with a round on top

I delivered the bed this week, I went into their beautiful house and assembled it.. With a new longer mattress now, and safe in the knowledge that it will last for a few more decades.

All the best

Jamie

Hand carved sign post..

I loved doing this one..

I was working away in the shop as per usual..not sure what on, but I noticed a couple in my Gallery area..and they were getting what I do, can do etc.

Within a few minutes Ben, Sarah and I were chatting about something they would like made for his parents. And from what Ben was saying I was beginning to come up with some great ideas..

This was going to be a really cool piece. Ben wanted the house name, with a date of his parents Ruby wedding anniversary carved into it.

After a few texts..Ben came one evening with a beautiful piece of English Oak 7" x 7" and about 7ft long..
We talked about where the letters would be carved and how it would look..

So I asked Ben to go and think about it, then type out exactly what he wanted, the height, width and I'm not quiet sure who came up with the idea... maybe because we were on the same wavelength it just happened..

A piece of glass in ruby red, let into the post.

So now we were getting somewhere..

And after a couple of days, I found one of the sides was beautiful, no splits, shakes and it was just the right face for me ..love it.. so I started carving

single click on the photo to enlarge

Three letters down, and I put this pic on Twitter..I called Ben, told him the photo was online..

He loved it..   woohoo.

So I carried on..

First word done..    more feedback ..

everyone loves it.. and so do I

Here's the finished letter carving..

I got so into the carving it was great to do..but forgot about the glass..The Ruby red piece.

I'm in the centre of the Glass making industry for over 300 years, so if I can't sort this bit out I need shooting..

and it was simple.. I asked Ian Bamforth, one of the glass blowers at the Stourbridge Glassblowing Studio, to blow me a 52 mm diameter globe, that I was going to let into the post..

This is it..finished..

It will be erected in the corner of his parents field / garden..

Ben's going to get it done and get some pictures of it in place.. when I get them I'll put them on here

All the best

Jamie

# Shop Stool Build Off.. Part 4. Voting has started

And you can have your say..

Over 40 stools to look at.. all different types..wonderful..

Vote here, between <  click this link > to take you to the voting page..

(problem with HTML link..Grrr I'll sort it later)

Here is a preview of the stools with there respected number..

If you single click on the pictures they will enlarge to view in one single row

So there you have them..

I'll be perfectly honest with you, there are 5 that I would welcome in my workshop or home..

Here's that link again

Vote here, between <  click this link.. > to take you to the voting page

(problem with HTML link..Grr I'll sort it out)

Vote here, click this link..

All the best

Jamie

# Shop Stool Build Off.. Part 3. Day two (Sunday)

A bit of a late start today, got into the workshop around 9 am.. later than I wanted, but I had time to think about what was sorted, and what I needed to get done.
The first thing to do was to get the joints of the boss' all done and get them glued up to the legs. I had already got two done, so only four more to do. But there was one thing that I needed to check out..

I knew that I couldn't just put two boss's any old distance apart..they were both going to be joined by the threaded spindle. So when the positions were marked on the legs I had to ensure that the boss' were on the threaded spindle then around the correct distance apart. I chose around 125 mm, this is 25 mm more than an Ikea piano stool shown in Part 1. I wanted this extra 25 mm so that the threaded spindle would have less play, one of the issues with that stool..

So then I just had to mark on each leg from a datum already taken from the former. I'm sure engineers know what I'm up to and there's probably all sorts of theory and practice stuff behind it. But what I do know, is that if I hadn't done this, then I would have been in all sorts of trouble..

Here you can see my last 'dry fit'

Each leg could now be bonded into the boss' and I chose to do them one at a time. with a couple of shop made jigs..

Next.. to turn the spindle for the threaded part.. and it started  really well. I turned the old Beech table leg down to 32 mm (11/4"), took it off the lathe cut some thread, then put it back on the lathe if it needed just a little more off, which it did on a couple of occasions. But the 'fun' started half way down, I hit a patch of knots, only very small, tiny in fact..but it was enough to start the grain ripping out..after that I couldn't get it back on track...so now all I could do was use my sample piece that was being used for cramping up the legs and boss'.. I did expect problems.. but not with the things I've done lots of times before... oh well.

This meant that I could get on with turning the seat.

I had two choices with the seat, Sweet Chestnut that would compliment the White Oak or..A turning blank of Purpleheart that I had had for over 20 years, that I've been hanging on to until the time was right.. The sweet Chestnut was over 2" thick and I didn't want to waste just under half of this thickness.. whereas the Purpleheart was the correct diameter and thickness, even with Its couple of flaws. So onto the lathe it went...I didn't take much off, just rounded the edges and dished the top to around 6 mm (1/4"). That was enough.

Then it was just a case of getting the top boss, (made the day before) fixing it to the underside of the seat with three lovely old GKN  11/4" countersunk slotted screws. After assembling all the parts I gave it a coat of Danish Oil with an extra additive that accelerates the drying.

And here we have my stool.

It was fun at times, quiet stressful. The de-lamination was a pain and I now know why it happened, and would build my new understanding of why into my process of laminating, I'll try it out and if it makes all the difference then It was a great lesson learnt.

Gluing up seventeen strips in one go was mad, I did expect the de-lam to be much worse than it was, so I wasn't far off.

The threading..I'll have to look into it. But the tap box isn't very happy..after hitting those knots, might just be a sharpen up.

Contrasting colours look great..

There will be a Part 4..look out for it..there may even be parts 5,6 and 7..but for the minute..

I'm done

Hope you enjoyed

All the best

Jamie

# Shop Stool Build Off.. Part 2. Day one (Saturday)

Today is the end of Day one..

I knew that I had pushed some of the boundaries for me..and this was never going to be an easy build..

The legs are out of 1" White Oak planks, cut into thin strips to enable me to bend them to fit my former or mould. The first thing I had to do today was get the 3rd leg out of the cramps and run the three of them through the planer.. down to just over 20 mm, and that went great, they are starting to look really cool..

The next thing to do was to set up my big router in the router table, with my latest huge 1/2" Thumb Mould cutter

I wont be using it as shown, I'll be using it without the shoulders

on all four faces to create an ellipse

The stool is going to be viewed from all round, and I want it to perform as a shop stool but also create a talking point for visitors and clients.

So it's important to me that as you walk around it the section looks fluid..and it will.

Routing the Thumb Mould was a real pain, after I had cut the edge of one side it removed the area I needed to get the second cut, so i had to follow the bearing by eye, taking it down in a few cuts to stop it tearing out, the inner lower leg radius is down to 5" ..I lost a lot of time on this..with the couple of repairs. but hey ho..

Here's some of the de-lamination, whilst routing the Thumb Moulding on.

I then made the pattern for the two center boss's ..These are again in White Oak. around 5" diameter, they weren't too bad to make. Three notches around the outside, hole through the middle to be threaded and one to have a slight flat on the end grain to take my stamp.

The top Boss was made, this has a thread through it's centre, it will screwed to the underside of the seat and the threaded Beech spindle will be bonded into it.. It has the same Thumb mould around the underside and looks pretty cool already..

Marking up the boss' to make a pattern

There's a flat on one of the boss', just for my stamp..

Parts..

I'm using an old table leg in Beech for the centre spindle. It's on the lathe now but I'll turn it first thing in the morning..

Two of the six joints in the legs to the Boss's are cut and I'll be doing the others tomorrow in the daylight.

The seat will be in..

Catch up with the rest in..

# Shop Stool Build Off.. Part 3.  Day Two (Sunday)

Thanks for looking,

All the best

Jamie

# Shop Stool Build Off.. Part 1

If you follow me on Twitter then you may already know..



A few weeks ago Chris Wong who is a wonderful woodworker from Vancouver, Canada..and I follow on Twitter. Asked if anyone was interested in building a stool for their workshop. He needed a new one and after a couple hours, I think there were three of us who had said "yeah great lets go for it.."

The idea was to have a Build Off, I think Chris had done this before with other projects. Design an item, then make it in a period of time, a weekend. When every type of professional to hobby woodworker could have a go..The weekend for the stool. 25~26 January 2014..

There was a prize.. someone would be the winner. I thought that just taking part and maybe I might be in with a chance of winning..Now that was fine for me just to be called the winner, and there are only a handful of guy's doing this..so yeah I'm in with a chance..(if I did win of course..much chance?..read on).

I then suggested we put up our own prizes, like a side bet as Chris calls it.. A tool from our own collection that is sent to the winner of the competition. Remember at this point there were only a handful of people doing it..

So..over the weeks some people have been posting blog entries about stool designs, the thought process behind height, width and loads of much more complicated things that I can remember and the build up to the weekend. Others have have been putting images of their stool on Twitter..Some are being drawn up on 3D CAD to get everything perfect..

Today is the Sunday before the event, so six days to go until next Saturday..There are now 75 people taking part in this build off..and over $2000 worth of sponsored prizes..Yes it's got that big..

So, to my stool.

I wanted to make a stool that looked cool, no waste of materials, with some sexy curves..I like some of the industrial early twentieth century stools and chairs used in factories, and offices.. but want a stool that would look cool in a modern kitchen or office, as I plan to make a short run of these beautiful stools..

Here is some of my inspiration,

 

Of the Four above, you can see lots of metal..where you see metal.. 

I will be making all of these parts in wood..

These are from one source click here 

This one is probably the the closest to what I will be making.

The timber of choice is..American White Oak..why ? because I have some in stock, it is straight grained, strong, used in a lot over here..

The last thing I want to show is a little more modern..but has some of the detail and the necessary parts to make my stool..

IKEA "Sveneiik" Piano Stool

As I type this..the first leg is laminated..and I'll be laminating the other two on the Friday before the 

the weekend..

I welcome your comments..and you can follow me on Twitter to see the progress.

All the best

Jamie

*****

Day one..

I knew that I had pushed some of the boundaries for me..and this was never going to be an easy build..

The legs are out of 1" White Oak planks, cut into thin strips to enable me to bend them to fit my former or mould. The first thing I had to do today was get the 3rd leg out of the cramps and run the three of them through the planer.. down to just over 20 mm, and that went great, they are starting to look really cool..

The next thing to do was to set up my big router in the router table, with my latest huge 1/2" Thumb Mould cutter

I wont be using it as shown, I'll be using it without the shoulders

on all four faces to create an ellipse

The stool is going to be viewed from all round, and I want it to perform as a shop stool but also create a talking point for visitors and clients.

So it's important to me that as you walk around it the section looks fluid..and it will.

Routing the Thumb Mould was a real pain, after I had cut the edge of one side it removed the area I needed to get the second cut, so i had to follow the bearing by eye, taking it down in a few cuts to stop it tearing out, the inner lower leg radius is down to 5" ..I lost a lot of time on this..with the couple of repairs. but hey ho..

Here's some of the de-lamination, whilst routing the Thumb Moulding on.

I then made the pattern for the two center boss's ..These are again in White Oak. around 5" diameter, they weren't too bad to make. Three notches around the outside, hole through the middle to be threaded and one to have a slight flat on the end grain to take my stamp.

The top Boss was made, this has a thread through it's centre, it will screwed to the underside of the seat and the threaded Beech spindle will be bonded into it.. It has the same Thumb mould around the underside and looks pretty cool already..

Marking up the boss' to make a pattern

There's a flat on one of the boss', just for my stamp..

Parts..

I'm using an old table leg in Beech for the centre spindle. It's on the lathe now but I'll turn it first thing in the morning..

Two of the six joints in the legs to the Boss's are cut and I'll be doing the others tomorrow in the daylight.

Thanks for looking,

Jamie

*****

Day Two..

A bit of a late start today, got into the workshop around 9 am.. later than I wanted, but I had time to think about what was sorted, and what I needed to get done.
The first thing to do was to get the joints of the boss' all done and get them glued up to the legs. I had already got two done, so only four more to do. But there was one thing that I needed to check out..

I knew that I couldn't just put two boss's any old distance apart..they were both going to be joined by the threaded spindle. So when the positions were marked on the legs I had to ensure that the boss' were on the threaded spindle then around the correct distance apart. I chose around 125 mm, this is 25 mm more than an Ikea piano stool shown in Part 1. I wanted this extra 25 mm so that the threaded spindle would have less play, one of the issues with that stool..

So then I just had to mark on each leg from a datum already taken from the former. I'm sure engineers know what I'm up to and there's probably all sorts of theory and practice stuff behind it. But what I do know, is that if I hadn't done this, then I would have been in all sorts of trouble..

Here you can see my last 'dry fit'

Each leg could now be bonded into the boss' and I chose to do them one at a time. with a couple of shop made jigs..

Next.. to turn the spindle for the threaded part.. and it started  really well. I turned the old Beech table leg down to 32 mm (11/4"), took it off the lathe cut some thread, then put it back on the lathe if it needed just a little more off, which it did on a couple of occasions. But the 'fun' started half way down, I hit a patch of knots, only very small, tiny in fact..but it was enough to start the grain ripping out..after that I couldn't get it back on track...so now all I could do was use my sample piece that was being used for cramping up the legs and boss'.. I did expect problems.. but not with the things I've done lots of times before... oh well.

This meant that I could get on with turning the seat.

I had two choices with the seat, Sweet Chestnut that would compliment the White Oak or..A turning blank of Purpleheart that I had had for over 20 years, that I've been hanging on to until the time was right.. The sweet Chestnut was over 2" thick and I didn't want to waste just under half of this thickness.. whereas the Purpleheart was the correct diameter and thickness, even with Its couple of flaws. So onto the lathe it went...I didn't take much off, just rounded the edges and dished the top to around 6 mm (1/4"). That was enough.

Then it was just a case of getting the top boss, (made the day before) fixing it to the underside of the seat with three lovely old GKN  11/4" countersunk slotted screws. After assembling all the parts I gave it a coat of Danish Oil with an extra additive that accelerates the drying.

And here we have my stool.

It was fun at times, quiet stressful. The de-lamination was a pain and I now know why it happened, and would build my new understanding of why into my process of laminating, I'll try it out and if it makes all the difference then It was a great lesson learnt.

Gluing up seventeen strips in one go was mad, I did expect the de-lam to be much worse than it was, so I wasn't far off.

The threading..I'll have to look into it. But the tap box isn't very happy..after hitting those knots, might just be a sharpen up.

Contrasting colours look great..

There will be a Part 4..look out for it..there may even be parts 5,6 and 7..but for the minute..

I'm done

Hope you enjoyed

All the best

Jamie

*****

The voting has started

And you can have your say..

Over 40 stools to look at.. all different types..wonderful..

Voting has now closed

Here is a preview of the stools with there respected number..

If you single click on the pictures they will enlarge to view in one single row

So there you have them..

I'll be perfectly honest with you, there are 5 that I would welcome in my home..

All the best

Jamie

Results..