I Underestimated Myself

I am SO wowed by what I did today.

It all started a month or so ago when a friend of mine was looking through a kids magazine or something. She saw a wooden step stool that had custom writing puzzle, pieced into the top step. I thought that it looked ridiculously cute but that it was kind of pricey.

Today I got a wild hair when I saw the pile of extra wood from the drawers. I went online and looked at a bunch of other stools since I couldn't find the original, and set to work creating my own.

I just whipped out my circular saw and jerry rigged a workbench using the bumper of our Jeep. After cutting the shapes for the sides,  I sanded the edges and took a little off the bottom in the middle to make it look like legs. That just made me think of the Leg lamp from A Christmas Story.

The only things I had to purchase for this project (since the wood was technically leftover) was a pack of special screws and some new blades for my coping saw. I learned how to use a coping saw one time in the seventh grade. Our school required all seventh graders to take a two week sample course of each elective that was offered at our school. So for two weeks I immersed myself in safety goggles and the intellectual droning of Mr Wynn. The toughest piece of equipment we were allowed to use was the router. It was SO cool. So cool in fact: that about two months ago I was at an estate sale, and the highlight of the day for me was walking home with my new(used) router!! Wow I definitely get sidetracked...

The one on the left isn't sanded yet.

Anyway, I learned in one day how to use a coping saw and for some reason it was one of the things that stuck. I used it today to cut the letters, and the frame for the letters. I used a sharpie to trace some letters I printed from the computer. No freestyle sawing for me! That would have turned out HORRIBLE. I broke my first "R" but after that, I kind of got the swing of things again.

The clamp was a MUST.

After I cut out the letters, they were in dire need of some sanding because there were funky edges all over the place! Enter: sand paper and file/rasp thingy.

After that, I arranged the letters on the piece I was going to use for the frame, and traced an outline so I would have a guide. Again, NO freestyle cutting for me! Disasters can be averted by learning from MANY past mistakes!! *oops!*

The blade is on the inside. No edges were cut.

I got the coping saw on the inside of the frame by taking it apart and putting it back together with the blade on the inside. To start it out, you just have to drill a hole in the wood big enough for the blade to pass through. I didn't do that great of a job making clean lines on the frame either, so I employed the temporary services of the file/rasp thingy again!

The file/rasp thingy!

Then the sandpapering began. I sanded all the pieces of the step stool until they were baby soft. It took FOREVER. The "E"'s were the worst; So many tiny areas to cram sandpaper into!! All edges and corners were sanded down because I don't want my Godbaby, Rylee, hurting herself on a sharp edge!!

The letters, of course, did not fit their little puzzle frame, so I begged the file/rasp thingy to give me one more hour of its precious time. I paired it with some 80 grit sandpaper to make sure there was enough room around each puzzle piece to wiggle. I ended up using a huge drill bit to make a hole for the "R" because I didn't think it was a big enough space to risk ruining it with my crummy coping saw skills. I might have taken the chance, except that I knew I wouldn't be able to get any sandpaper into such a tiny hole to fix it!

As an afterthought I put some wooden wedges on the underside for support.  Now, even fatty me can stand on this thing without worrying!

They fit!!

Support triangles! Do you also see the leg effect?

Frame on top of top step.

Well I hope you like my wild hair! I was extremely excited about how good it turned out!! When Rylee is old enough to stand on stuff, this should be a real helpful item. I love her so much, and hope she has this thing forever! She comes from a family of shorties, so she may still need it when she grows up ;) For now I think it will probably be used as a puzzle and just a nice furniture piece haha. Its a good present for an infant, right?? lol


-S

The grain of the wood is in a different direction for the letters than the surrounding frame. This makes the letters stand out better in good lighting.