Origami Table/Stool

Project is here.

I finally bit the bullet and tried a design that included joints, moreover, important joints.
I periodically go through the offcuts box to see if anything jumps out, and I had a few “long triangle” bits of ash. I’ve made stools/small tables in every kind of wood I’ve used except the ash, and, after a bit of playing about and brainstorming I came up with this idea. I’d also been wondering for a while about a “2-legged” table.
It got the “Origami” nick name while it was being glued up…

!

Being only joined to the top with 2 legs, it was important that those joints were strong, and could survive a turning moment, so I pushed the boat out and went for some kind of weird “slidy” sort of joint – I daresay that has a name…

I managed to “sneak” up on the fit, so it was pretty tight.
So far so good!

The “small leg” I attached with a tapered “flap” joint. Not half half, so I could attach the cross piece…

This I couldn’t sneak up on, so it ended up a wee bit looser than was ideal, but by making sure I clamped it under the right strain, I could make sure the crucial bits to take the strain were actually flush during gluing.

The cross piece was the first time I’ve ever actually aimed to cut a piece to the exact correct size, rather than cutting big and sanding down, and I actually managed it just about right. Getting the faces at the right angle without a table saw required planing at an angle, but someone was obviously watching over me and that seemed to go OK. Gluing it in place, what with all the weird angles, was a challenge, but it worked OK.

Leveled the legs and cut the small 45 degree on the top and it was finished, except for removing glue and lots of sanding.
Done!

Learnt lots.

I like the ash, but one thing I don’t like about it is that the end grain “dumbs down” when the oil is applied.

I think this is, technically, the best thing I’ve ever done. And I like the result too – a bit weird, but not toooooo weird.
It was also enjoyable to make – most projects have enjoyable bits and bits of drudgery, but this was mostly fun – small but not tiny helps, as does not messing stuff up and having to recover along the way.

I think I might try some more joints soon :-)