Plywood Stool with Footrest by tosjduenfs

Last crawled date: 3 years, 1 month ago

My CNC router has a 2'x2' working ares so for my stool I used a 2'x2'x3/4" piece of plywood and some standard elmer's carpenter's glue. The seat is 12"x14" and the base is 15"x17". It sits 18" off the ground with a footrest 6" off the ground.
The stool is incredibly sturdy, I weigh about 230lbs and there is no signs of stress on the stool. I'm sure it will support at least 300lbs.
Once the glue has fully cured it will get a good sanding and a nice stain.
Instructions:
The seat is nested into the footrest separated by 1/8". I used a 1/8" router bit. The inside corners of the slots and tongues were drilled out by the router before cutting out the parts to ensure a proper fit (look closely at the photos).
If the tolerances of your tongues and slots don't make for a tight fit you may want to use foaming gorilla glue to help fill the gap.
When assembling the chair make the base first. Apply a generous amount of glue to the slots in the foot rest and legs before joining, then apply glue to the tongues of the legs and fit the seat on top. For maximum strength, ensure there is glue on all mating surfaces. Wipe up the excess glue. I used some scrap dowels wedged between the legs rather than clamping each individual leg and then I set my heavy tool box on top and let the glue cure for 2 hours before testing. Let the glue cure for a full 24 hours before sanding and staining.