Indoor Ladder

[Jeff Wittrock]

Both my wife and son have a very bad habit of standing on a chair to get to something out of reach.
I was guilty of the same thing until one day I tried standing on my sawbench and put my foot out on the 'ripping notch'. The bench flipped over as did I and I don't do that anymore.

I was going to just buy one of the small aluminum steps, but thought it would be fun to make something that looked reasonably at home with the other furniture.

Just made from Southern Yellow Pine construction lumber.
SYP is not really what I would call light weight so I scalloped the bottom of the rungs and other places to try and keep the weight down.
I dreamed up a number of different schemes to limit the forward travel of the front legs, but ended up making some pivoting metal ones as seen on most folding wooden ladders.
Once folded, it does a good job of standing flat against the wall.

Lots of opportunities for me to use the spokeshave.

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[Jim Koepke]

Nice design.

jtk

[Hilton Ralphs]

Very cool Jeff.

[Aaron Liebling]

Love the scallops on the steps. Adds a touch of elegance.

[Mel Fulks]

Nice! Clever “vertical gravity leaning”. Space Age Space Saving that lets you ascend to the top safely! Lots of library step designs to enjoy ,
just saw one priced at $14,000 ! I’d like to make one of the old folding pole ladders, take a look if you haven’t seen one.

[ken hatch]

Jeff,

Nice work,

The kind I like best, utilitarian, clean, simple but does the job well.

Good on you,

ken

[David Silverson]

Could I ask for rough dimensions please.

[Jerry Olexa]

Nice design and build....I like it..Well done!!!

[Mark Rainey]

Nice, convenient and practical

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Love the scallops on the steps. Adds a touch of elegance.

It is one of the things that I particularly like about it. It just feels like a bunch of extra things were done to make it nice.

[Mike Allen1010]

Very, very nice Jeff – great example of utilitarian household object, handmade with style to high standards. I particularly like the through wedged Morrison tenon joints use for the stretcher, the half lap for the handhold on top and the profile is shaped on the treads. Excellent job!

BTW, what's the hardware that you use for the pivots?

Coincidentally enough I recently made something very similar with some excess beech using aluminum stock and stainless steel fasteners from the Borg. Mine is solid but doesn't close nearly as nicely as yours.

Jeff, you got great talent I would love to see post more of your work. Thanks for taking the time to post!

Cheers, Mike