ladder/chair

This is from an old magazine. Made of cherry. Each project step was a challenge. I made a plywood template for the leg patterns, roughed them out and then gang sanded them so they match. For the two rear leg assemblies a little rail is required, which is angled differently on each end. The actual angle depends on the other parts and I think it would be something that will vary slightly each time you make one. The next challenge was joining the leg parts together—no good clamping surface to work with. I had to fine tune the mating surface with a block plane. I am not a hand tool expert but did get an ok result. I used double biscuits to be sure the joints are sturdy, and used packing tape wrapped as tight as possible to clamp the asemblies together. Next was dado’s for the steps. The plan called for a router jig but I decided my radial arm saw would work just as well. The saw had to be set up for each side independantly but miraculously they came out good. I also dadoed the part that makes the bottom of the back legs/ladder top to overcome a goof on my measuring. (Sometimes I swear that tape measure must be elastic.) After dadoing, the leg assemblies were sized to final on the ends that sit on the floor in chair mode. The seat is notched to fit around the back legs. Then you have to dry assemble and cut the tops of the back legs so it sits properly on the floor in the ladder position. The chair back rails were the simplest part. I decided to screw them and plug the holes because getting mortises to match side to side seemed more difficult than was required. front piece of the seat was also screwed and plugged. After all assembled I applied boiled linseed oil, followed by several coats of oil/poly/mineral sprit mix. Whew, this may have been the most challenging thing I’d done yet! Thanks for looking.