p

at***

To adjust the height of the seat, the post threads into the hole in the lower support.

5eat & Poet

With the base of the stool complete, it's time to add the seat and a threaded post to raise it up and down, see drawing at right.

SEAT & COLLAR

I began by making a large, flat disk for the seat (D) and a thick, doughnut-shaped collar (E) to support it.

GLUE UP BLANKS. To make these disks, start by gluing up two hardwood blanks. I edge-glued l^u-thick stock (maple) to make the seat blank, see Fig. 11. But to "beef up" the collar, it's IV2" thick.

COT DISKS TO SHAPE. The next step is to cut the disks to shape. To do this, I used a simple circle-cutting jig on the band saw that uses a V4" dowel as a pivot point, see page 29.

The dowel fits in a centered hole in each blank. I didn't want the hole in the seat to be visible. So it's only V2'¹ deep. But I drilled a through hole in the collar. Later, this makes it easy to drill a centered hole for the post.

SAND EDGES. The jig also comes in handy when sanding the rough edges left by the blade. By taking it to a disk sander, it only takes a few minutes to sand perfectly round disks.

ROUT ROUNDOVERS. To keep the sharp edges of the seat from digging into my legs, I routed a W roundover on the top and bottom edges. While I was at it, I rounded the bottom edge only of the collar.

ADD COLLAR. Now

you can attach the collar to the seat. To prevent the seat from wobbling, the collar needs to be perfectly centered. This is easy — especially since the holes for the pivot pins are already centered. Just stick a dowel in the hole in the seat. Then apply glue to the collar and set the pivot hole over the dowel. Installing screws clamps the pieces together and strengthens the joint.

HOLE FOR POST. Next, to accept a tenon on the end of the threaded post, you'll need to drill a large hole in the collar. Here again, centering the hole will keep the seat from wobbling.

To accomplish this, I used a simple

"two bit" trick. Start by mounting a V4" bit in the chuck. Then set the seat on the drill press table and lower the bit into the pivot hole in the collar. After locking the quill, clamp the seat to the table and replace the V4" ^fe bit with a lV^'-dia. bit, see Fig. 12. ^^

This centers the tip of the bit on the pivot hole. When drilling this large hole, the bit will chew up the end of the dowel in the collar, see Fig. 12a. But that's okay. It's already served its purpose.

THREADED POST

With the seat and collar complete, you can concentrate on the threaded post (F), see drawing above. It's a

¹/4"

ROUND-OVER

CENTER AND DRILL ¹/₄" HOLE, ¹/z" DEEP

#10 x 2" Fh WOODSCREW

CENTER AND DRILL 14" THROUGH HOLE

COLLAR

(5" x 5"-1¹/₂"-THICK HARDWOOD)

SEAT (13" x 13"-1"-THICK HARDWOOD)

¹/4"

ROUND-OVERS

DOWEL

NOTE;

HOLE IS CENTERED ON COLLAR

1V₂" MULTI-SPUR BIT

10

ShopNotes

No. 46