boys stepstool

[tod evans]

about 2hrs ago my wife asked for a little stool for our toddler. rough lumber to this picture using no jigs. finish is 5 coats nitrocellulose satin. tod25987

[Bernie Weishapl]

Tod that is a cool looking stool. Pretty simple but works. Are those finger joints or dovetails?

[Roger Barga]

Nice work and I especially like how you dovetailed the side piece in for extra support. My wife has been asking for step stool for over two months. Good thing she doesn't read this forum.

roger

[Mark Singer]

Tod amazing in 2 hrs! What is nitrocellulose...sounds dangerous:confused:

Nice work!

[John Miliunas]

Egads Tod, a "simple" step stool and even that you make elegantly! In two hours, no less!:) In two hours, I might have had the lumber jointed/planed and possibly cut to size. Hmmm...Another 1/2 hour to setup the DT jig, at least an hour to fret over the scroll design, two more hours..... Oh forget it! :rolleyes: Looks great and the details are beautiful!:) :cool:

[Jim Becker]

Much nicer than the ones we bought at Tar-zhay for our soon-to-be-youngest-girl!! Very nice!

[Shelley Bolster]

Sheeeeeeesh.........some people!!! ;) Two hours from rough to THAT. :eek: That is one fine step stool Tod....very cool side dovetail. :) If any of you haven't already checked out his homepage - DO! This guy does some amazing stuff and I can personally attest to his generosity when it comes to sharing his knowledge. Two hours! (If you only knew what I was mumbling under my breath. :p )

[Bob Noles]

Tod,

2 hours? I couldn't make something that nice in 2 weeks:p

Great job!

[Tyler Howell]

Tod that has to be some kind of world record:eek: .
Very nice!

[Sam Blasco]

10-15 minutes between coats, solvent based, and figure just a hint of de-nibbing, that means surfaced, dimensioned, cut, glued, clamped and sanded in less than an hour. Wow! What a slacker. Your blades must have been dull... Good job, Tod.

[Pete Harbin]

Nice job Tod. I like the dovetail on the front...that must be what took so long! :D

Pete

[Jarrod Nelson]

Very nice. My dad made one for our kids several years ago. That thing receives constant use. The only problem is yours is a little too nice to step on. :)

[Vaughn McMillan]

Dude! Slow down! You're making the rest of us look bad. We ought to tie you and Jason T back-to-back and ask you both to build a Shaker entertainment center in a day. That'd be a fun video to watch. :D

That's a very nice step stool, and even though the design is very elegant, you obviously didn't do a lot of lingering over it, you just went in and did it. It's nice when everything goes together the first shot, huh? Very well done.

- Vaughn

[lou sansone]

hi tod
I am going out on a limb here, but I assume you cut the DT's by hand. That is how I normally do it for all 1 off's and I think it underscores the fact that hand cut dt's are very quick indeed. granted if you have a bunch of kitchen drawers you want to jig it, but for one of a kind it seems for me that I can just cut them by hand ( and with the aid of a scroll saw and hand held router in some cases ) much faster. Not only can they be cut faster, the layout is very quick by eye or I cheat and use one of those expandable divider things.

so am I out on a broken limb?

lou

[Keel McDonald]

That's 2 well spent hours I'd say! Nice job.

[tod evans]

thanks all of you for the kind words, to answer two of the questions; nitrocellouse lacquer is a pretty volatile solvent based finish that i swear by, sam was really close in his assumption that i wait 15 min. between coats, actually i wait maybe 10 min, do 3 coats then lightly sand then coat/sand etc. the stuff cures to touch/sandable in less than 15 min. to answer lous question yes i hand cut, a few years back i got rid of my omni-jig and i`m glad i did, besides the sattisfaction of cutting the joints by hand it`s a fantastic marketing point, and for me especially on just a few racks it`s much faster. thank all of you again, and have a good day, tod

[Timo Christ]

Tod,
nice job on the stepstool.
Do you spray the NC laquer? Is it possible to wipe this stuff on??? I've heard of the stuff before but all i have now are dim feelings that it is too troublesome for a hobby shop...
Regards, Timo

[tod evans]

timo, i spray. i don`t think a fellow would have much luck with any other method but i have heard of folks doing the french polish thing??? i`ve never tried it so couldn`t say for sure. if you want to try for yourself it`s not to dificult to locate in spray cans. try looking at the home centers or an auto body supply house. plan on using outdoors `cause it`s pretty potent stuff. tod

[John Miliunas]

FWIW, I tried some of the Watco "brush on" lacquer about a month or so ago. Not sure if it's the same "flavor" as the NC but, IMHO, I'll never use the stuff as a start to finish process! I may still use it as a first coat to build on, but subsequent coats will absolutely be sprayed on! I found that when you try to brush on 2nd/3rd coats, the lacquer does what lacquer is designed to do: It virtually "melts" into the previous coat. That's OK when spraying but, when trying to brush it on, the reaction is quick and you just start dragging against the previous coat. Loads of brush marks result and it just takes forever to try and feather in a wet edge. Nope, NOT my idea of a good process or a good time!:( I can't imagine wiping on coats past the first one being any different, due to the nature of lacquer. Don't know...Maybe I was doing something wrong but, I'm not willing to take a chance on a more important project. I'll stick with spraying, even if it's from the canned spray bombs!:) :cool:

[Kevin Post]

Yeah, well he still has nothing on Norm. That guy can build a whole set of kitchen cabinets in 30 minutes. :D

My wife has watched Norm and now watches Trading Spaces where they make a complete bedroom set out of MDF in about 15 minutes. She has seriously asked me why I can't build stuff that fast with all my tools. I just shake my head and say, "I don't know... They're just a lot better than me, I guess."

[Jason Tuinstra]

Tod, okay, I thought that was a joke minus the obligatory ":p " Obviously not. Great job! I agree with you on the sprayed lacquer. I spray a pre-cat and it dries in minutes as well. Gotta' love the speed at which you can finish a project. I love it! I can't imagine ever going back to anything else.