Milk Stool _ Build It _ Ask This Old House
# DIY Project: Building a Milking Stool from Reclaimed Lumber
## Introduction to Reclaimed Lumber
In this project, we repurpose reclaimed lumber, specifically an old 10x10 beam, to create a functional and stylish milking stool. This approach not only reduces waste but also adds a unique rustic charm to the piece.
## Preparing the Wood
1. **Selecting the Beam**: The speaker chose an old 10x10 beam from a construction site. Reclaimed wood offers durability and character, making it ideal for furniture projects.
2. **Cutting Strips**: The beam was cut into four strips to form the seat and legs of the stool. This step ensures manageable pieces while preserving the wood's integrity.
## Shaping the Seat
1. **Flattening the Surface**: Using a planer as a makeshift jointer, the speaker glued an additional board to one side to create a flat surface. This technique is essential for achieving a smooth base.
2. **Cutting the Circle**: A jig was used with a router and templating guide to cut the circular seat. The process involved:
- Setting up the template guide to define the circle's diameter.
- Using a second router bit to remove excess material outside the circle.
- Finishing with a 3/4-inch roundover bit for a smooth edge.
## Creating the Legs
1. **Milling the Legs**: The legs were cut from the remaining strips using a table saw and joiner to ensure straight edges and square dimensions.
2. **Compound Miters**: Each leg was tapered at an 8-degree angle on both sides, creating a wider footprint for stability. This technique ensures the stool sits flat on the floor.
3. **Stretchers and Joints**: A stretcher system was added under the seat for extra support. Mortise and tenon joints were used for strength, involving:
- Cutting mortises in the legs and rails.
- Creating tenons to fit snugly into these slots, ensuring a sturdy assembly.
## Assembling the Stool
1. **Attaching Stretchers**: The stretchers were attached using mechanical fasteners, providing stability without dowels.
2. **Screwing Legs**: Each leg was secured to the underside of the seat with screws, completing the structural framework.
## Finishing Touches
The stool was finished with a milk pink stain on the seat and a natural stain on the legs, enhancing its rustic appeal while protecting the wood.
This project showcases how reclaimed materials can be transformed into a practical and beautiful DIY piece, perfect for various household uses.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwow look at this some reclaimed lumber here yep this is an old beam it was a 10 by 10 that i saved came off of a job years ago you don't throw anything away dude i like working with this old wood it's really nice so what are you thinking of building out of it well i'm actually thinking about building a little milking stool what by cow milking stool a little milking stool can be used around the house if you have a little kid that can't reach the sink to wash his hands or a little accent table maybe in a room or if the kid wants to milk the cow yeah it can do that too got it if you put a plant on it i get it makes sense all right so what i did is i took the beam that i have obviously took the shot piece and i cut it into four strips all right now those four strips i glued two together last night and i have the this extra pieces here we can use for the legs all right and what size you thinking well the seat will probably be around 12 inches gotcha yeah so i turn this over so i can see the other side how the join is i want to clean it up first let's make it level and we'll bring it down to thickness and then we'll cut the circle got it i'm in okay so i ripped the board down so that it will go through the planer but a little bit wider than the circle that's needed now also because we don't have a jointer wide enough to flatten one side of this board we're going to use the planer as a joiner so this is not flat right so if i hold this corner down here and push down on this corner oh yeah and what we're going to do is we're going to take a board like this and glue it to the side i'm going to hold this down tight perfect all right just hold it down onto the table and push it tight to the board we're good all right so now that's not moving ready to run it through okay so now that we have a flat surface we can flip this over and flatten our board and bring it down to the thickness that we want so i'm going to use this jig to cut the circle with the router and it starts with this hole right here to fit that fits a templating guide right there that's on the router and the router bit will slide through that when you push the base up yeah so you can stay there out a bit so now what i do is i'll take this and i'll flip it over and slide that right down on and that fits tight to that okay so now we've got it set up so the from the inside of the router bit to the screw is the diameter that i want we'll gradually cut all the way down because we don't want to go too deep at once give us an even cut all right so that's as deep as we can go with this size bit and i also don't want to cut into the table with the router bed so what i'm going to do is i'm going to change the router use a different bit but i need this wood outside the circle removed so we'll remove the template why don't you cut all that away i'll get the different router all right so what we did is we cut the top with the templating guide now you've cut all our rough out of the way i've got another router with a different bit and this is a templating bit that will cut flush with that cut there gotcha all right i also got a bearing on the bottom now you can see how the bearing is above the wasted material that will ride on our finished cut up here and we'll make this all flush cleaned up nicely yeah now we're going to use a three-quarter inch round over bit to round over that edge and clean it up all right so now with this piece of the beam right here i'm going to start to mill this up into the legs now the first thing i want to do is take the rough beam and run it through the joiner for a straight edge next i cut my pieces on the table saw to rough dimension back to the joiner to square them up back again to the table saw for the final dimension okay legs yep okay so what i have is a little mock-up you can see that the two lines that we drew on the underside create four equal quadrants it also helps us position the legs equally on the underside of the seat gotcha legs and a little stretcher system their frame yeah these are the rails that will attach to the legs and then this whole system will attach to the underside of the seat using screws now we could put a dowel in this and drill a hole in that and put a dowel through it but i want to do it with mechanical fasteners and just make this two separate pieces so are your your legs are going to be tapered right so that looks like they splay out yeah they're going to splay out in two directions it's going to go out like this and they're going to go out like this and that's called a compound miter which makes a wider footprint which gives the seat more stability so are you going to start by cutting legs yep all right so how you making these compound miters tommy well in this case the compound miter is eight degrees in both directions okay so what i mean by that is i have to angle the saw at eight degrees here all right set it there and lock it in now i want to bevel the saw or tilt it to eight degrees in that direction so you're going to cut a compound on the side that meets the underside of the seat correct and then also on the bottom of the leg that's right so it's going to be a parallel cut in two directions top and bottom that way it'll sit tight to the underside of the seat and flat on the floor got it all right now i need to tilt the blade to the angle so i can cut the top of the rails where they meet the underside of the seat i'm just going to tip it down to 8 degrees all right so we're ready to put the legs together i'm going to use a floating tenon with a mortise so you got a mortise what two on each leg two in the leg and two on the rail once we glue those in there it's gonna be nice and strong all right all right so let's screw it to the underside of the top okay all right let's see how it looks there you go tommy that is adorable pretty cool huh yeah that's great perfect little milking stool so what are you thinking for finish well how about milk pink for the top we'll stain the legs you got milk on your mind all right very nice tommy thanks for watching this whole house has got a video for just about every home improvement project so be sure to check out the others and if you like what you see click on the subscribe button make sure that you get our newest videos right in your feedwow look at this some reclaimed lumber here yep this is an old beam it was a 10 by 10 that i saved came off of a job years ago you don't throw anything away dude i like working with this old wood it's really nice so what are you thinking of building out of it well i'm actually thinking about building a little milking stool what by cow milking stool a little milking stool can be used around the house if you have a little kid that can't reach the sink to wash his hands or a little accent table maybe in a room or if the kid wants to milk the cow yeah it can do that too got it if you put a plant on it i get it makes sense all right so what i did is i took the beam that i have obviously took the shot piece and i cut it into four strips all right now those four strips i glued two together last night and i have the this extra pieces here we can use for the legs all right and what size you thinking well the seat will probably be around 12 inches gotcha yeah so i turn this over so i can see the other side how the join is i want to clean it up first let's make it level and we'll bring it down to thickness and then we'll cut the circle got it i'm in okay so i ripped the board down so that it will go through the planer but a little bit wider than the circle that's needed now also because we don't have a jointer wide enough to flatten one side of this board we're going to use the planer as a joiner so this is not flat right so if i hold this corner down here and push down on this corner oh yeah and what we're going to do is we're going to take a board like this and glue it to the side i'm going to hold this down tight perfect all right just hold it down onto the table and push it tight to the board we're good all right so now that's not moving ready to run it through okay so now that we have a flat surface we can flip this over and flatten our board and bring it down to the thickness that we want so i'm going to use this jig to cut the circle with the router and it starts with this hole right here to fit that fits a templating guide right there that's on the router and the router bit will slide through that when you push the base up yeah so you can stay there out a bit so now what i do is i'll take this and i'll flip it over and slide that right down on and that fits tight to that okay so now we've got it set up so the from the inside of the router bit to the screw is the diameter that i want we'll gradually cut all the way down because we don't want to go too deep at once give us an even cut all right so that's as deep as we can go with this size bit and i also don't want to cut into the table with the router bed so what i'm going to do is i'm going to change the router use a different bit but i need this wood outside the circle removed so we'll remove the template why don't you cut all that away i'll get the different router all right so what we did is we cut the top with the templating guide now you've cut all our rough out of the way i've got another router with a different bit and this is a templating bit that will cut flush with that cut there gotcha all right i also got a bearing on the bottom now you can see how the bearing is above the wasted material that will ride on our finished cut up here and we'll make this all flush cleaned up nicely yeah now we're going to use a three-quarter inch round over bit to round over that edge and clean it up all right so now with this piece of the beam right here i'm going to start to mill this up into the legs now the first thing i want to do is take the rough beam and run it through the joiner for a straight edge next i cut my pieces on the table saw to rough dimension back to the joiner to square them up back again to the table saw for the final dimension okay legs yep okay so what i have is a little mock-up you can see that the two lines that we drew on the underside create four equal quadrants it also helps us position the legs equally on the underside of the seat gotcha legs and a little stretcher system their frame yeah these are the rails that will attach to the legs and then this whole system will attach to the underside of the seat using screws now we could put a dowel in this and drill a hole in that and put a dowel through it but i want to do it with mechanical fasteners and just make this two separate pieces so are your your legs are going to be tapered right so that looks like they splay out yeah they're going to splay out in two directions it's going to go out like this and they're going to go out like this and that's called a compound miter which makes a wider footprint which gives the seat more stability so are you going to start by cutting legs yep all right so how you making these compound miters tommy well in this case the compound miter is eight degrees in both directions okay so what i mean by that is i have to angle the saw at eight degrees here all right set it there and lock it in now i want to bevel the saw or tilt it to eight degrees in that direction so you're going to cut a compound on the side that meets the underside of the seat correct and then also on the bottom of the leg that's right so it's going to be a parallel cut in two directions top and bottom that way it'll sit tight to the underside of the seat and flat on the floor got it all right now i need to tilt the blade to the angle so i can cut the top of the rails where they meet the underside of the seat i'm just going to tip it down to 8 degrees all right so we're ready to put the legs together i'm going to use a floating tenon with a mortise so you got a mortise what two on each leg two in the leg and two on the rail once we glue those in there it's gonna be nice and strong all right all right so let's screw it to the underside of the top okay all right let's see how it looks there you go tommy that is adorable pretty cool huh yeah that's great perfect little milking stool so what are you thinking for finish well how about milk pink for the top we'll stain the legs you got milk on your mind all right very nice tommy thanks for watching this whole house has got a video for just about every home improvement project so be sure to check out the others and if you like what you see click on the subscribe button make sure that you get our newest videos right in your feed\n"