Making A Camp Stool

Camp stools are useful not only in camps but in the garden, in queues and in dozens of other places. You can make one in an afternoon, and it will not cost you much.

For the job, the following strips of wood are required:
4 lengths, each 20 inches long and one inch in section.
2 lengths, each I2 inches long and one inch in section.
2 stout dowel rods, each about ten inches long. (A dowel rod is a strip of wood, circular in section.)

The wood is put together so as to make two frames, as shown in the lower sketch. At the top is a I2 inch length; at the sides, two 20 inch strips and, joining these, down below, is a dowel rod.

When the two frames are made, one is dropped within the other and then bolted together, at a point a trifle higher than the middle of the length. In order that this may be possible, the two frames must not be made the same width. Make the width between the two uprights of the larger frame, eight and three-quarter inches, and the outside width of the smaller frame, a full eighth of an inch less. Then, they will fit nicely.

The two legs are joined to the top rail by cutting them to a slight taper and inserting in holes shaped to take them. They should wedge in tightly and be glued as well.

The dowel rods are inserted in holes made with a brace and bit. They, too, should be glued.

Where the two frames are to be bolted together, make a round hole through the two strips, insert a bolt and tighten up by means of a nut. A thin metal washer should be placed between the two strips, insert a bolt and tighten up by means of a nut. A thin metal washer should be placed between the two pieces of wood.

As the frames have to be hinged in two places, all this has to be done twice.

For the seat part, obtain any suitable piece of stout material, eighteen by twelve inches; fold it along the edges so that it measures eighteen by ten and a half inches, and tack the two two short ends to the upper strips of the frame. Place the tacks as far under the strips as they will conveniently go, so that there is no fear of sitting on them.

It is not a bad plan to round all the edges of the wood before it is made up.