After fiddling around with the broken pieces of this dinning chair, I discovered a simple way to recombine them into a nice little ’squatting’ stool.

I find that when working with materials  that have been previously cut and shaped, the easiest way to discover what you can do is to make 3-D sketches. By this, I mean holding the pieces in your hand, putting some together, taking others apart, and propping them against one another. That is exactly how I developed my 3-D ’sketch’ (image above right) to turn this trashed chair into a brand new stool.

After setting my goal for the piece, I began figuring out how it would all come together

Removing the Old Finish

The first thing I did for this project was remove all of the old finish on the pieces I was going to use for the stool. I decided to use sand paper rather than paint stripper to expose the natural wood. The finish was already crumbling off around the legs, and it didn’t take much work to remove the rest. I used a wire brush initially to remove the crumbling finish then sanding sponges moving from a course grit (around 80) to a finer grit (around 220) to smooth out the newly exposed wood.

Making Repairs

One of the supports between the front and back legs of the stool was broken (image above left) and in need of repair. First, I made sure the break was aligned and that the wood would fit back together nicely. Then, I added wood glue using a small piece of paper pushinh the glue in between the split and coating the wood. After the wood glue was applied, I needed to clamp my work, which can be difficult to do on a round piece of wood. So, I improvised with a scrap of cloth! I wrapped with cloth around the break and then twisted it until it began to curl and knot and get REALLY tight around the break. Once I could see the glue oozing out of the cracks, I knew it was tight enough, and I used a small clamp to hold the fabric in place (image above right.)

Adding New Structure

If this stool was going to be able to hold weight well, it needed a cross support between the right and left legs. This support helps keep the legs from bowing out and keeps the seat from splitting down the middle under the weight of a person. If you look at the structure of most chairs you will see some variation of this system. I decided to install a dowel between the supports, or footrails, that already ran between the front and back legs.

To connect the large dowel between the right and left side of the stool, I decided to use a dowel joint where a hole, or socket, is drilled in the footrail and in the end of the large dowel and then a dowel pin connects the two sockets together (with a little glue!) For this piece, I also drilled a hole the size of the larger dowel in the footrail to countersink, or allow the dowel to recede, into the footrail. The footrails already had holes from the last supports, so I let those define where my new support would go.

In the image above and to the left, you can see the clamp system I used to hold the dowel in place as I drilled the dowel socket. This system, in which you clamp one scrap of wood to your table and clamp another scrap to that one with your work in between, comes in handy when you don’t have a vice! Once I drilled my sockets in the dowel and the footrail I tested out the connections to make sure everything fit.

Now that this support was ready to go, I need to find a way to connect the planes of the seat together.

Reconnecting Old Joints

Originally, the planes of wood on the seat were just glued together. I wanted to give the pieces a more secure connection, and I decided to add three dowel joints down the edge of the wood. So I measured and marked corresponding points on both edges and drilled the sockets for my dowel pins.

While I drilled the sockets, I made sure my wood was clamped to my work table. Also, to help keep my drill perpendicular to my work I placed a straight block of wood next to my drill (image above right.) While drilling, I kept my bit parallel to this block to create a straight socket.

It All Comes Together

Once I had tested all my new joints and knew the stool would come together nicely, I applied wood glue to my dowel pins and all the surfaces that were a part the joints, pushed the stool together, and clamped the work. I used a piece of scrap wood along the side of the seat (image above right) to help distribute the pressure of the clamps. I also put some scrap fabric under one clamp that was secured directly to the seat to keep it from making indents in the wood.

Check back soon to see how the piece looked once the clamps were removed and find out what I’m doing with the rest of my dumpster diving finds!