After the glue has set for about an hour
it becomes tacky and can easily be
scraped off the glue joint. Use an old
chisel or putty knife to lift the glue up in
long pieces. If it’s still too wet let it sit
for another 20-30 minutes and try again.
It’s much less trouble to do this while
the glue is just tacky and not dried hard.
Step 3
While you’re waiting for the glue to dry on the step and side pieces start
work on the pattern for the side pieces. On the next pages you will find
a full size drawing of the pattern to use for cutting out the sides. Take
the patterns and make copies of each page. The pattern was too big to fit
on one page so we divided it up. The dashed line on the long edge of
each pattern needs to be lined up to connect the two patterns. Use some
tape to hold the pattern parts together and then cut around on the solid
line with some scissors. Do not cut through the two solid lines going
through the center of each pattern, we’ll use those later. We actually
then took our paper pattern and traced it onto a ¼” piece of plywood
and cut out that pattern using the coping saw. We did this because we
planned on building three or more step stools for our house and we
wanted a more permanent pattern to use. You don’t need to do this step
if you’re only building one, the paper pattern will hold up just fine.
Step 4
With the glue dried, trace the pattern
out onto the two side pieces. Clamp
the pieces down and cut them out
using the coping saw. Sand the edges
smooth with your sanding block on
the flat surfaces, and a sanding sponge
or with sandpaper backed with your
fingers on the curved areas. Be sure at
this time to trim the step to the correct
size to be ready for assembly.