38VIDEO Securing the Footstool Top
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Jan 25, 2024
38VIDEO Securing the Footstool Top
View Video Transcript
0:00
In the previous video, we joined the legs and cross piece together
0:05
and we've got some decisions to make now again as we get ready to fasten the top
0:10
but something interesting has happened here. Usually, if something isn't quite right, it gets worse as you go along in the project
0:20
unless you take action to correct it. But here, we've got something that's automatically gotten better
0:26
If you remember, when everything was just sitting here, there was quite a bit of rocking of the top
0:33
and I was going to show you how we fixed that. But since everything's buttoned up, there's no more rocking
0:40
Isn't that great? We still will have some other errors to steer back onto the road and to correct
0:49
but for now, let's just get busy. The challenge ahead of us is pretty much similar to what we did before
0:57
So we need to locate where the screws are going to go, measure distances so they look nice
1:02
We need to drill the hole for the screw to pass through the top
1:07
and then we need to drill smaller holes so that the screw will grab in the legs
1:14
So, first decision. If you look here at the plans, you see we've got three screws on each end
1:24
That's a fair amount over a 9-inch width. So, three screws would look like this
1:31
I don't think it's too much. I mean, visually speaking, it's certainly going to be strong enough
1:36
But you know, two screws would be strong enough, too. The reason I'm not going to go with two, though, is because of a little issue here
1:47
We've seen it before, but can you take a look there? The cup of this board has caused a gap here
1:56
I think we can get rid of most, if not all, of that, but it's going to take a screw in the middle in order to do it
2:03
You might think, well, is that one screw in the middle enough? You know, if we just did the one screw in the middle
2:08
I'd say no. It would probably hold together okay, but it's going to kind of look funny to have just the one screw there
2:14
It's not going to be as strong as it should be. So, we'll go with three, and now we have to draw some lines
2:22
Basically, we want the top to be centered on the legs, and these front edges flush
2:32
That's what we're shooting for. So, how do we do that? Well, step one is to determine how much total overhang of the top there is in relation to the legs
2:52
What do we have here? We're showing one inch and a half, and then one eighth
3:02
So, the difference between this big-ish line and this not-so-big-ish line here is an eighth
3:08
So, that's one and five eighths. I can work metric or imperial
3:14
I like imperial because it's got a little more personality to it
3:18
and it's also very easy to split imperial measurements in half. So, let's just take the one inch
3:24
One inch split in half is half an inch. Five eighths of an inch, that's sort of the rest of the measurement
3:30
You split a fraction in half by doubling the denominator, by doubling the number at the bottom
3:35
So, five eighths turns into five sixteenths. So, we've got half plus five sixteenths, and that should be our amount of overhang on each side
3:46
So, that's the half there. Where are we? Right here. That's the half
3:51
So, I'm going to put it there, and then I'm going to move it over five sixteenths from there
3:58
So, that's one sixteenth there, two sixteenths, three sixteenths, four sixteenths, five sixteenths
4:06
So, right there is where I think it should go. That's how we split the difference
4:15
Now, I'm not going to trust myself, if you remember, multiple layers of safety
4:20
So, slide this over here. Now, we go over to the other side, and we check the same thing, and we find it's very, very close
4:38
Very close indeed. Actually, it depends on where we are along there, but there
4:44
I think that's pretty much perfect. Yep, it is. Functionally perfect. Not absolutely perfect, but functionally perfect
4:54
And now, I'm going to just make sure that these edges are flush
5:03
So, the legs and the cross piece are exactly where we want them on the top
5:11
and I'm just going to trace this out here. Voila
5:33
So, remember we're going to do three screws, and it's a great idea to lay that out with the top upside down like this
5:45
because we can see the lines, there'll be no surprises, and no guesswork
5:51
So, our decision at this stage is to determine exactly where the screws are going to go
5:59
And once again, the combination square will help us. The middle screw is easy, because the middle screw is just in the middle
6:10
And if you remember, nine inches wide, well, that's a little bit less than nine
6:15
So, we get four and a half, and then a little bit less than four and a half, and lock it
6:30
Very close to being centered there
6:40
Okay, now, what do you think? Where will we go
6:52
Well, I think an inch is a little too close to the edge
6:56
Two inches is probably too far from the edge. An inch and a half might be nice
7:03
It's the same dimension as the thickness of the top, so I think that's going to look just fine
7:09
Let's adjust our combination square to one and a half inches. And we just go all around
7:20
You see how useful this thing is? This thing is very useful for marking
7:42
The only thing we have to determine right now is how far from the ends of the boards we're going to drill
7:51
So, we want to be in the middle of the legs, so that would be an inch and a half
8:00
So, we're going to go about three quarters of an inch or so
8:09
Actually, you know what I'm going to do? I don't know if you can tell, but you see how this is curved a bit
8:15
That's because of the cupping in the legs. But if you think about it, all I really want is to see a nice straight line of screws on the top
8:28
It doesn't really matter if the screws deviate a little bit from center in the edge of the legs
8:35
What matters more is how this looks on that side. So, what I'm going to do, I'm just going to take this measurement here, referenced as it is from the edge of the board
8:47
and I'm just going to apply it across the board, so that we have a nice straight line of screws
8:57
It should work out just the same. It should work out just the same on this side
9:08
Actually, that's a little off-center from that. That's a better one there
9:30
Great. This is the smaller of the drill bits, the one that does the root diameter of the screw
9:40
It's not big enough for this application, so we put the bigger one in
9:45
The one that's just a smidge over a quarter of an inch, which is the diameter of the screws
9:53
Just to make sure that our drill bit doesn't dance around and start going down in the wrong place
10:01
I'm going to make a little dimpled mark. There we go
10:28
Now for some drilling. Can you see? I'm lining up my eye with the drill bit here
10:39
I'm lining it up so I can see whether I'm square in this direction
10:44
and I'm also taking a look from the side to make sure I'm square in this direction
10:48
It's not critical that it be absolutely right, but I do have to be conscious about it
10:53
because it's very easy to drill at quite an angle if you're not paying attention
11:09
There we go. Okay, next step is to repeat that procedure that you saw before
11:52
where we put in some screws and tap them down in order to mark the top of the legs
11:59
but there's a bit of a detail here that I need to alert you to
12:06
I have the six structural screws in place, and I'm going to give them a tap here with this
12:15
but something you have to understand. It's very important that the top not move in relation to the legs until I've marked all six screws
12:27
If I mark a couple of them, and then the top shifts, and then I mark the rest of them
12:33
well, they're not going to be aligned with each other relative to the holes that I'm going to drill
12:40
So it's very important that I keep this solid, not let it move
12:44
I don't have to really hit this hard. That should do it
12:59
Okay, and there we have our marks. Now, I have made a mistake
13:07
I have made a mistake, and it's the kind of mistakes that nobody ever completely avoids making
13:14
no matter how much experience they have. So this is another chance for a teaching tangent
13:19
You will make mistakes. You will make big mistakes at first. And as time goes on, and as you put more effort and time into it
13:27
your mistakes will be smaller and less important. But you will never completely avoid making mistakes
13:34
because you can't always see the end from the beginning. And the mistake I made was over here
13:43
Remember, I told you, this is a new design. I've designed this little footstool for this course
13:49
And my arbitrary decision about where that screw goes put this screw too high
13:56
because what happens is, this screw here is going to go down far enough
14:00
and it's going to hit this. So it's not going to be able to go down all the way
14:05
What can I do about that? Well, this is a valuable teaching moment for you
14:10
because this is the kind of thing you're going to run into all the time. You need to be flexible, and you need to say
14:16
okay, how can I solve this problem in the simplest way possible? Now, I guess I could take this out and move it down
14:22
but now I have a big ugly hole here. We can't have that
14:26
I could make new legs, but that would be a real drawback
14:30
That would set us back a lot, since we're making good progress here
14:34
What does that leave me with? Well, what I'm going to do in this case, and I'm going to be happy with this
14:41
is I'm just going to trim off a little bit of the center screw, the central screw
14:45
I will just shorten it a little bit, so that there is enough room
14:49
But for now, I'm not going to worry about that. Now I'm just going to drill the hole, like this one we did before
14:56
I'm going to take out the bigger twist bit, and I'm going to put in a smaller one here
15:08
I'm sure I want to make it a little deeper than that. Drilling hole
15:44
See how that drill bit is not going down all the way? I'm hitting the metal
15:49
I'm hitting the metal, but that's okay. We'll fix that. Notice how this hole is a little closer to that face than, say, this one
16:03
That's because, as I said before, the board is cupped. What matters is that they're all in the same line with each other
16:09
That's the thing that really matters. I hit that screw again. Actually, I kind of skirted it a bit
16:26
I'm past it on that side. The bit must have just grazed one side of the shank of the screw
16:36
I may not need to trim that screw any shorter. We're ready for assembly
16:52
but we're actually ready for me to show you how I'm going to solve another problem
16:59
This is sort of the kind of problem you're going to run into with all sorts of projects
17:05
It has to do with that gap, because the top is cupped
17:12
How would I deal with that? There's different ways I could deal with it
17:16
One way I could deal with it is to use a hand plane
17:22
and plane a little bit off here and here, but not in the center
17:27
so that I basically make the bottom of this board flat, even though the top is still curved. I could do that
17:34
I would have to reduce the thickness of the top by maybe that much
17:38
which is a fair amount. I don't think I want to make it look any thinner
17:44
Another option, I guess, is I could... This would be kind of challenging
17:49
I could reduce the length of the legs here at the top
17:53
so basically make them a little bit curved to match the curve of the cupped board
17:58
That's an option, too, but tricky and machine-dependent. What I am going to do is I'm going to shorten this screw so that I can drive it
18:10
These screws are powerful enough that they may be able to suck the top down flat
18:18
to get rid of that cup shape. It's possible, but I'm not sure
18:23
The thing is, if I try and the screw can't do it
18:27
it means the screw is chewing up the wood that the threads were biting into
18:32
and that screw is not going to grab any more at all. I'm going to hedge my bets a bit, and I'm going to use a clamp
18:41
I'm going to use a clamp to try to pull this down flat, to get it flat before I drive the screw
18:48
I think those two things together will work for me. Let's just do a little dry run. That's another thing about woodworking
18:55
You always have to test. Just because you have an idea that you think is going to work doesn't mean it actually will
19:02
Let's see if we're good. Can you see the gap there? That's tight there. Still a little bit of a gap there
19:18
Try this again on the other side. Pretty good. I think I can do better with a stronger clamp
19:29
But before I try to grab that stronger clamp, I just want to point out
19:33
clamps are a big part of woodworking. Erwin Quick Grip. This is a unique style of clamp
19:40
I would say it delivers moderate clamping pressure, but it's in a very convenient package, because you can push this trigger
19:49
and you can slide for any size you want. And then when you get it to the size you want
19:57
then this squeeze handle takes over, and you can squeeze it, and it draws in, as I said, a moderate amount of pressure
20:05
But for this job, I think we want a large amount of pressure
20:09
So I'm going to go get a more powerful clamp, and I'm going to shorten a screw, and then we're going to give this a try
20:17
So as you can see, I've shortened this screw on my grinder
20:21
You could have just used a shorter screw, too. A slightly shorter screw. I didn't happen to have one of this kind
20:29
It was just a little bit shorter, so I ground it off
20:33
Grinding machines aren't really a typical part of woodworking, but it is nice to be able to turn to them from time to time
20:41
Now, the more powerful clamp. We're going to do this side first
20:49
and take a look at how this pulls down. Just watch the gap here
20:59
Now that's not acceptable. That's too much of a gap. So... Did it get smaller? It sure did
21:17
I think that's quite acceptable now. And we're flush on both sides, so let's drive that shorter screw in first
21:25
and then we will drive the other ones. I'll take the clamp off. Everything should just stay this way
21:33
Then we'll flip things over and do the other end. Now it's starting to get tight
21:47
I'm hoping that it pulls it down even more. Let's take a look. Even if it doesn't, that's okay
21:55
I don't think it's pulled it down anymore, but it's plenty tight
21:59
And now we will do the other ones. Flip things over, and then tighten up the other side
22:25
Let's pull down pretty good. I think I might be able to get a bit more
22:49
Maybe if I had another clamp of the same kind on this side
22:53
I'll just take my clamp rack and get that. The thing about woodworking is, you're going to need a lot of clamps
23:01
Just a few at first are helpful, but keep building your clamp collection
23:05
There's a saying amongst woodworkers, you never really have enough clamps. I've got a lot of clamps. I don't usually run out of clamps
23:13
for bigger projects, but sometimes I do. So you kind of have to get used to that
23:17
Get ready to buy some clamps if you're going to stay into woodworking
23:21
A little bit more with that, so we're in good shape. I'm going to tighten up the screws
23:29
One thing about screws in woodworking is that you have to develop a feel
23:33
for how to tighten them. It's very possible to over-tighten screws and to have them strip out in the hole
23:45
There's only so much pulling that the threads can do on the wood fibers
23:49
before it starts to slip. The way you know that is, as you tighten up the screw
23:57
if it stops getting progressively tighter as the head comes down on the wood, if it stops getting progressively tighter
24:05
as you continue to tighten it, you know you've reached the limit
24:09
of what that screw can do in that hole. So you don't want to tighten it anymore
24:13
With a wrench like this and the leverage that it affords me
24:17
I could easily strip out these screws. I could tighten them too tight
24:21
the threads would lose their grip on the wood fibers, and then we would have a significantly weaker joint
24:29
It would still be stronger than nails. Now's the time when the feel comes in
24:37
It's not getting any tighter, so I'm not going to tighten any more, but it's as tight as I want it to be
24:41
It's flush. And then we'll take a look at what we've got
25:15
Okay, there we have a functional footstool. And it's even actually pretty stable
25:23
Let's see what it feels like on the floor. A bit of a wobble there. Now that could be because of the floor, or it could be
25:31
because of the stool. So you see, these two sides are high, and the stool is pivoting
25:39
on these two corners. If it's the stool, it should be the same when I flip it around
25:47
If it's the floor, it'll be opposite. So let's see. Still the same
25:55
So, in the next video, I'm going to show you how to fix that
25:59
so that your stool is nice and stable