|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
| Piano stool |
| Shirl & Tara build a viewer her own piano stool, complete with a hinged lid for storing music. |
|
|
|
|
Robyn Everitt from Rockhampton recently e-mailed Shirl and asked for some help building a piano stool. Keen to help, Shirl built a piano stool complete with hinged lid for storing music. Next it was Tara's turn to lend a hand, adding a padded seat and a special finishing touch.
Piano stools come in two main sizes. Older pianos have higher keyboards and require a stool with legs of about 500mm. Newer pianos have lower keyboards so the legs should be about 460mm. Robyn's piano once belonged to her great aunt so it's quite old and will need a stool with longer legs.
Step by Step:
1 Cut pieces to size as per cutting list. Dimensions may be altered to suit your own requirements.
2 Set up your router with a chamfering bit. A chamfer is a 45° degree angle. Rout the edges of the legs (we chose not to run the router all the way along the length of the legs). With the same setting one long edge of the rails can be done. Choose the best face to be the outside and make sure the chamfer is approximately 5mm deep.
3 Attach the rails to the legs with screws by drilling pocket holes on the inside face. Alternately, you can dowel the joints by marking the dowel positions on the end of the rails and using dowel centres to locate positions onto the leg.
4 Sand all pieces before assembling.
5 Assemble rails to legs. If you are screwing the rails to the legs, apply some wood glue to the ends. Clean off excess glue with a damp cloth.
6 Once the rails are in place, check for squareness. This is easily done by measuring each diagonal and adjusting the unit to the appropriate direction until the diagonals are the same.
7 Screw and glue 20mm x 20mm railing pieces to the inside bottom edges of each rail, flush with the bottom.
8 Plane to fit the bottom piece, then fix by screwing and gluing from inside top.
9 Chamfer the top edges of the plywood lid.
10 Attach hinges to the rail and then the lid.
11 Give the piano stool a final sand with fine paper then apply a finish. We used Cabot's Interior Varnish Stain in Teak.
When Tara's turn came to lend a hand, she decided to upholster the stool and add a special feature to the new padded seat. Upholstering the seat is as simple as adding a block of foam (approx 2cm thick), some wadding, a sheet of calico and then the covering fabric. After putting the foam and wadding in place, staple gun the calico to the seat and then the final piece of fabric, making sure it is pulled tightly into position.
For this project, Tara chose to use a white low-nap velvet. To add a decorative finish she cut a stencil from acetate and transferred the picture to the velvet using Archival artist's oil paint in Pacific Blue. This was applied with a stencil brush.
Diagrams
Seat cross-section
 Stencil pattern (enlarge to fit stool top)
|
Materials
Tasmanian Oak 40mm x 40mm x 2100mm
Tasmanian Oak 120mm x 19mm x 2400mm
Plywood 17mm x 900mm 600mm
MDF 6mm x 900mm x 600mm
3 x 65mm butt hinges
Wooden rail 20mm x 20mm x 2400mm
Tools:
Router or trimmer
Chamfering bit
PVA
Cutting List:
4 Legs 40mm x 40mm x 500mm
2 Front and back rails 120mm x 19mm x 720mm
2 End rails 120mm x 19mm x 320mm
1 Plywood top 17mm x 820mm x 420mm
1 MDF base 6mm x 740mm x 340mm
|
Total Cost
The total cost of the piano stool was approximately $100.
|
More Info
Foam cut to size is available from Clark Rubber.
59 Winbourne Road
Brookvale 2100
Ph: 02 9907 3377
Fax: 02 9907 4488
Materials available from your local Home Timber & Hardware store.
For more information on Cabot's woodcare products call their Customer Service Hotline.
Ph: 1800 011 006
Artists' oil paint and acetate available from all good craft stores.
|
Disclaimer
All Fact Sheets and other material on the Our House website are provided as a general information service only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for the advice of a properly qualified tradesman. Neither ninemsn nor its licensors (including the Nine Network) assume or accept any responsibility for, and will not be liable for the accuracy or appropriate application of any information whatsoever in any Fact Sheet or other material on the Our House web site. Your use of the Our House web site is governed by this disclaimer and the ninemsn's Terms of Use.
|
|
|
|
|
