This video is sponsored by Volusion A great way to help you get started selling the cool stuff you make. Public service announcement: If you're going on a road trip this summer don't forget to bring an extra Microjig. Maker of the GRR-RIPPER. Work safer.Work smarter. Guess what you can make from a single 2×4? This cool, sturdy stool with fancy joints.
Cutting this 2×4 down to slightly oversized
lengths will make them a lot easier to manage. Before I rip these to their final widths, I need to trim off the rounded over edges
of the 2x4s. I want these to be as wide as they are thick, so I'll set that on its edge and move my fence over to size it. All of the angles and bevels in this project
are 15 degrees. I'll start by cutting the four upright pieces
to their lengths. I've installed a set of dado blades in my
tablesaw that will make cutting the half-laps go a
lot faster. If you don't have any dado blades, you can do the same thing, just by making multiple passes with your regular
blade. As soon as I've got that to the width of another
board, I can set my fence to stop at that location. I should point out that I would never use
the fence like that as a stop if I was going to cut all the way through the wood.
That could pinch this piece and cause kickback. But since this is only going through half
of the board, it's safe. When cutting the angles for the horizontal
pieces, you just want to make sure the angles are opposite of each other, not parallel like they are with the upright pieces. I've got my dado stack back in place and I've got the fence back where it was before. I'm going to cut the notches on these bottom
pieces a little differently. They get a notch on
one side, then I'll flip it over and do a notch on the
opposite side. And I'll cut out these little top supports and cut their half-laps.
I'll set my miter gauge back to zero. And I'll cut a notch in each of these bottom
cross braces. Now I can glue together the two sides. The way these interlock creates really strong
joints. I'll square up one edge of the remainder of my 2×4 board. I just resawed this board into two pieces. Unfortunately, that was the first time my
camera has ever stopped working right in the middle of an important shot.
So let me just recreate what I did. First of all, I set up a featherboard on my
tablesaw to keep the 2×4 pressed against the fence. Then I took the board and I ran it on its
edge through the saw…my dull saw… and pushed pushed pushed all the way to about here. Then i was able to grab a couple of push sticks and push it all the way through. With my dado stack back in place, I've set up a sacrificial board on my fence that the blades can cut into. Now I can move my fence over just a little at a time and keep testing it until this board I cut fits into those notches
flush.
The top boards will be easier to cut to size once I glue this cross brace in place. Now I can cut this board into three equal length pieces for the top. To make the edge bevel on the two outside
boards, I'll tip my blade 15 degrees. I can glue these two boards into place and then cut the center board to size. I'm drilling a finger hole to make it a little
easier to carry around. I'll give this a little bit of protection by applying a couple coats of Danish Oil. {Advertisement} Of course I'm going to
give it a strength test! Aww..now it's all dirty. By the way, the first person to make the tired stool sample joke will be asked to leave the
room. Bet you didn't know you could make that with
a 2×4. By the way, this isn't the first stool I've
made. I assembled the other ones in a playlist, including this favorite: Don't forget to check down below for a free set of plans to build your own.
And please visit the ForMereMortals.net where you can post pictures of your own projects and view tons of projects that other people
have made and download lots and lots of free plans..