This was another project I started a couple of months ago, and now I’m finding time to finish it up. Awhile ago, I made a foot rest for one of the LumberJocks contests. It was for my wife and it was loosely based on a nursing stool she had. Although we never had kids that needed nursing, she just found it comfortable under her desk. I made a few changes and made it slightly larger. She liked the first one so much she wanted one to take to work. I also needed one of my desk, so I thought I would just make two while I was at it.
I’m using Mahagony for these foot rests. I found a nice board at one of my local suppliers.
I marked out the pieces on the board and rough cut the longer board into a couple manageable pieces. I milled the boards using my Planer. Because of the width of the board, I started out using my Planer Sled to get one side flat. I then milled the boards to 5/8″ thickness. Going thinner, than the standard 3/4″, looks better for the scale of this project, and it makes the foot rest a little lighter.
Next I cut each of the components to their finial size. I also made a couple templates I would used to shape some of the pieces.
Using the templates to trace the shape onto the pieces, I rough cut the pieces on the Band Saw. I then used some double-sided tape and mounted the templates on the pieces. I use a router and a template bit, to do the final shaping.
To make this a changeling project, all of the joinery uses Through Tennons. To help place the mortises in the same place for each of base leg pieces, I made this jig.
The jig registers the leg and holds it securely. The mortises are cut using a router and spiral cut bit. I added some stops to the side of the jig, to limit the length of the mortise.
Once the mortises were cut on the legs, I cut the tennons on the Table Saw, using my crosscut sled.
I then removed the waste between the tennons using a Fret Saw.
I then cleaned up between the tenons using some chisels. This is about how far I got, when I first started the project, and because it was a few months ago some of the pictures seem to have been missed placed or were never taken. So, there are no pictures of assembling the base.
The bases were assembled. The stretchers have through tenons which are proud of the outside surface. The ends were “pillowed” to soften them. They were then pegged, to give the joint a little more strength.
Now for the really tricky part to this project, laying out and cutting the through mortises in the top. To do this, I started out by positioning the base on the underside of the top. Once I got it centered, I clamped it in place. I then used a marking knife to scribe the locations of the tenons. It’s very important to get the base square with the top. I used a router and a fence to cut the mortise, and if they aren’t square the router won’t be able to cut the mortises correctly.
The tops were clamped to this simple jig with a fence attached. I used a couple clamps as stops for the router, to set the length of the mortises. I made several passes with the router. I left about an 1/8″ for the final pass. This final pass will be what shows on the top surface. I made sure I was extra careful when making this final pass. I didn’t want the router veer off at all on this pass. I was lucky, no mishaps on any of the mortises.
Fitting and attaching the base to the top took a little bit of work. The mortises were cleaned and squared up using some chisels. The tennons on the base also needed a little tweaking, using a shoulder plane. Once the final fit was achieved, the base and top were attached. These joints were also pegged to give them some added strength.
All in all, I think they came out pretty well. I put a few coats of Arm-R-Seal on them and called it good. Here are a few shots of one of the finished foot rests. One has already been delivered to my wife’s office.
