Simple Stool

Kids love to help in the kitchen. When they grow up a little, a regular chair or a full sized step stool might be to high for them to reach the work surface. Additionally a chair will be in the way in a kitchen most times and it takes two hand to move it. I designed this little stool to have a hight less than 20 cm, allowing the cupboard doors to open and swing over it, while giving a child (age 5 - 9) enough hight to reach to kitchen top. It's light enough to be pushed in place with one foot.

I used a 1/8" upcut single flute endmill to cute 18 mm pine wood. Actually the board was rather scrap wood and I am no big fan of rustic style but refraining from plywood I learned an important lesson: grain direction is crucial when using this kind of material. My first build broke apart right away. The second try – honoring the direction – is really solid. To increase the rigidity even more I glued the parts. I rounded the edges with a round over bit on a little hand held router and finished it with mineral oil to intensify the wood grain and protect the surface against dirt and moisture.

I created my first simple stool with maximum rigidity and the most simple construction in mind, but a few members of my family prove that it still could topple if you stand on the absolute edge. So I enhanced the design with tilted feet so the base is greater that the top board, loosing a little rigidity in the construction. Still this version is able to support a jumping dad, so everything's fine.

Like the last time I used a 4 mm single flute endmill, cutting through 18 mm pine with 9 mm depth per cut at 2800 mm/min. I didn't need tabs as the compressed sawdust is able to hold the pieces in place. I glued the supports to the step board on the whole to enshure maximum stability. The handheld router helped with a nice round over and mineral oil finished the surface.