Footstool
An under-desk footrest was a must for me, it was essential for improving my posture and the ergonomics. I figured out what height would be ideal for my feet and found a perfect board in the shed. Now I can tell that the timing was perfect – I started the project before Christmas and quietly applied the finish over the next few days after the holidays. It was cold, about freezing, but I managed to do the glue-up and apply a few coats of a durable finish. I couldn’t start that project sooner, as the past November was the 5th wettest November in 85 years of records for Ireland, and the combination of sawdust and rain isn’t something I enjoy. Not that I work in the rain, but there’s no way to clean the tools with compressed air after the work is done. December was slightly better, just cold. Neither rain nor freezing cold are perfect for woodworking in a shed, but I was happy I could spend some time on a project. I just had to have in mind that neither glue or some finishes work in the freezing temperatures. It’s always nice to be back to making stuff – every part of it is enjoyable, whether it’s designing, woodworking or writing blog posts, and that includes making up their titles. This time I tried to keep the title simple – just a single word.
The scrap wood I had on hand used to be a part of a table saw stand I made a few years ago. Before I moved with work, I first checked it for moisture content and with my metal detector. This is a standard procedure when working with salvaged wood. All was good, and I could run the board through my thickness planer to remove grooves it had cut on one side in the past. The board was too thick for the project anyway. I also smoothed down its edges with a 12-volt planer.
Rather than using sophisticated joinery, like mortise and tenon or locking rebates or whatever else – I decided to use a simple dowel joinery but with pieces joined together at an angle different from 90°. That way I could use my trusty dowelling jig the way it had never been used before. Plus, I could challenge myself on tilting the blade to the correct angle. Sometimes I just want to try something new – something simple yet strong, or easy yet good-looking. I tilted the blade to 38° and cut off two ends of the board. Then I trimmed the legs at an angle of 14°. The maths I used was as follows: 45 – 38 = 7. And 7 * 2 = 14. I didn’t fully understand this, but it worked. The angles were perfect, and even the legs could stand by their own.
Next, I set my dowelling jig, drilled the first set of holes, moved the fence back a few centimetres, and drilled the next set of holes. I referenced the jig from either edges – left or right, the boards were uniformly wide, but if I did it again, I’d reference the jig only from one side of the workpiece. I even have special pins to do so, but I didn’t use them. The dowels needed to be sanded lightly – they weren’t truly 10 mm dowels – the fit was too tight. Once resized, I applied the glue to the dowel holes and the faces and clamped everything together using offcuts from the previous step. Due to the cold weather, the workpiece had to be moved indoors, and it stayed there overnight. The same applied to the wood filler – once I filled up all the nail holes, cracks and other imperfections – I moved the footrest to the house for a couple of hours.
The next step was sanding. It took a lot of time, using my orbital sander first and then the finishing sander. In the meantime, I rounded over the front and the back edges with a 6 mm router bit. That was followed by more sanding and shaping the top ridges. They couldn’t be cut with a router bit due to the angle they were joined at, but manual sanding turned out really great. The last step was to ease all the remaining edges with a sanding block. Sanding off a little chamfer is usually my favourite part of sanding. I typically use fine sandpaper to minimise damage if something goes too crazy (but it never does). It’s important to remember that this chamfer isn’t only for visual or practical purposes – it helps the finish to cling and form around the edges.
I applied the 1st coat of polyurethane varnish and let it dry overnight. Even though, I tried to apply a rather thin layer, the workpiece experienced some runs. Those were sanded off after 2 days, and when I applied the 2nd coat of varnish, I flipped the workpiece and let it rest on its top, instead of the legs. I just took an advantage of the rounded edges, rather than sanded off chamfers. The 2nd coat of varnish formed nicer than way, but still – it wasn’t something I was looking for, it wasn’t perfect. For a project simple as that footrest, the finish must be immaculate. As far as I remember, with this particular product, I’ve never been able to achieve good results. It’s just a bad product and not easy to work with. To save the project as well as what was left in the tin, I came up with an idea – wipe-on poly! I used ratio 1:1 polyurethane to white spirit. After sanding off all the runs from previous steps, I applied another 5 or 6 coats of wipe-on poly, and that way I saved the finish from disaster. The wipe-on poly worked well, dried fast, and the finish was easy to apply. I sanded between the coats using 240 grit sandpaper.
Once the finish had a chance to harden for 3 days, I could move on with the work. Using an awl, I marked 4 drilling spots and pre-drilled all pilot holes. Pre-drilling was necessary because of the grain direction. I know from my own experience that screws tend to follow the grain, and in that case, the grain was parallel to the faces of the legs. That way, there was a chance that the screws would go at an angle to the rubber feet and could potentially scratch the floor. Once the feet were installed, I used a 0000 steel wool pad and beeswax to gently polish the surface, all except the very bottom of the legs, where the feet were installed. I removed the excess wax straight away using a cloth. The finish was ultra slick, it was even hard to hold the workpiece in the hands! I started using the footstool immediately. It worked great, the height was perfect and the size of the top as well. The rubberised feet held the footstool in place and prevented shifting. Also, their thickness corresponded amazingly well with the size of the stool. I first thought the feet could be too big for the project, but no, their size was just right. The stool is quite heavy and feels stable under the feet, also the rounded over edges give positive feedback. I’m very happy with all the time I could spend building it, the joinery I tried, the finish I used and with how the footstool improved the comfort of using the computer.
