To make the seat board of the stool, I intended to buy a strip board. But as I mentioned before, I ended up making a small board myself with some leftover planks I had in the workshop. The method you see in the video isn’t very refined, and I had no idea how it would turn out, but I’m happy with the result even though the glue joint between the planks is quite noticeable. I’m also pleased because I could make good use of the wooden clamps for the first time, and they do a great job (with the help of the small metal clamps), and I’m sure I’ll use them a lot and maybe make some more.
To reinforce the joint between the planks that form this board, I used 10-millimeter dowel joints, centered with the help of some nails. Normally, I would use dowel centers (those small copper pieces seen in one of the photos), but I only have centers and depth stops for 6 and 8-millimeter dowels and bits.
Another option would be to use a doweling jig, but I wanted to try this method with the nails and use the drill freehand. Ensuring that the holes drilled are at 90º to the edge of the plank is important because if the dowels are inclined, they won’t fit well into the holes in the other plank. I have a small drill press, but until I make a proper base for it, I didn’t want to show it much.
Lastly, the ugly part of the video. I still don’t have a proper hand plane (and I also don’t have the skill to use it confidently if I did), and although I have a handheld electric planer, I must say that I’m not fond of it (I no longer dislike it). If you’re thinking of buying one, forget about it. They don’t do the same job as a traditional carpenter’s hand plane and are quite dangerous in my opinion. Since the blade is out of sight and still accessible, it’s very easy to put your hand under the planer and lose a finger (I still have all mine, but I’ve come very close on a few occasions). Ideally, you would have a table planer and a thickness planer, or at least a proper table saw. Since my small table saw leaves much to be desired, I tried adjusting the edges of the planks with a rasp. A bit of a makeshift solution, but an acceptable result, at least for me. I do acknowledge that next time I will use the table saw.
That said, buying the handheld electric planer was a bad idea (I no longer think so since I made my own homemade thickness planer, and now I’m more than happy I bought the carpenter’s electric planer). There are other woodworking and DIY tools more interesting to spend money on.
In this video (YouTube), you can see how to use a table planer. Yes, in English.
And just to comment on my video upload speed to the internet… better I’ll leave you a screenshot.