Stool History

My first real job was as a computer technician.  I was in high school at the time and the computer shop in question was run out the owner's home.  This was before I had a license, and my Dad would drop me off and pick me up.  I worked there for a number of years, eventually buying both the business and the house when the owner was ready to retire.  After a year or two I decided business ownership was not for me and closed up the business and went back to working for someone else.  I got rid of just about everything from the business, but kept this stool.

Almost 25 years since I first started working at the computer shop, I've still got the same stool I used on my first day there.  I spent countless hours sitting on this stool, fixing and building computers.  Somehow this little computer shop managed to get the perfect stool.  It has three key features :

1. It's the perfect height
2. It's lightweight and indestructible 
3. The horizontal spacers are optimally positioned to act as a comfortable foot rest

So needless to say, I'm quite attached to this old stool,  I still use it every time I venture out to the woodworking shop.  Now my kids are getting to the age where they sometimes join me in the workshop and they have been 'stealing' my stool while we are out there together.  So one day I was out in the shop, sitting on the stool doing some sanding when my daughter came out to join me.  Naturally she needed the stool as well, so she could sit and draw at the workbench.  After a brief struggle she suggested I just make another stool.  

It seemed like a reasonable request, so I picked up the old stool, spent a bit of time measuring and got to work.  First, we glued up a seat blank out of some red oak :

Next, we cut some legs :

Here's where I started to scratch my head.  First, how was I going to attach the legs to the seat, second, how about those compound angles?  I decided to use my mortiser for leg attachment, but then the compound angles had my scratching my head for quite a long time.  Shortly thereafter I bailed on the idea of copying the stool and decided to go with a new design.  

We dug way back to June 2000.  Wood Magazine #124 had a stool that looked a little more like 1990 than 2000, but looked like it would do the job.  We'll drop the brass ring and luckily enough I have a lazy susan that's been kicking around my workshop for about ten years that finally be able to put to good use for the seat!