A Saw Stool on Steriods!

Those who have worked with me know how much I value traditional Saw Stools. I use them in the workshop and out on the job all the time. In fact I am lost without them! I usually have several sets, some low ones at around 21” high and some taller ones at 30” high.

I am not talking about those crappy folding metal and pine things, which wobble around and carry warning stickers saying you should not stand on then. I am referring to properly made traditional saw stools. Traditionally made from jarrah in Western Australia, these are rigid and can carry considerable loads. I have in use some that are well over 50 years old and which have worked hard all their lives. These type of saw stools were standard equipment for carpenters, joiners and cabinet makers for generations.

I had a big job to do recently, which involved working on site in Kalamunda for 3 weeks solid. I took a portable jarrah work bench with me, as there was a fair bit of bench work to do over those 3 weeks. Of course I also needed to use 2 pairs of low saw stools and 2 pairs of taller saw stools on site for that period as well.
While I worked on the job, I got thinking: How can I create a saw stool X workbench hybrid, which would be more portable than my portable work bench?

So I have played with the idea, and the result is a Saw Stool which looks like it has been on steroids:

View of the beast – a hybrid between a saw stool and a bench.

Here are the specifications:

Height: 880mm. The legs have a 10 degree splay to the ends and to the sides.
Length: 980 (plus tail vice outer cheek equals 1030mm overall.
Width: Pine 220mm, including jarrah front edge equals 260mm.
Tail vice: Maximum bite 240mm
· Minumum bite between dog holes: 240mm
· Maximum bite between dog holes: 1040mm.
Front vice: Maximum bite 140mm
· Minimum bite between dog holes: 110mm
· Maximum bite between dog holes: 390mm.

View with the Tail Vice extended.
 
A 25mm square Tuart guide rod maintains the orientation of the vice cheek with the single vice screw.

Almost whole thing is made from recycled salvage material :
· Pine top – from a 10” x 3” solid pine beam.
· Legs, rails, and other odds and sods – from some 3”x2” jarrah wall studs.
· “Breadboard ends” – from an old jarrah door sill. · Jaw cheeks of the front and tail vices – from a jarrah 8”x2” ceiling joist.
· Vice handles made from Peppermint (Agonis flexuosa) I milled years ago.
· Tail vice guide rod made from a piece of Tuart (Eucalyptus gomphocephala) leftover from the making of the Endeavour Replica.
· The tail vice screw and front vice are those imported ones from China or Taiwan, bought from my local woodworking shop. The front vice is the smaller of the two models available locally, and is pretty disappointing. Its guide rods and screw are not square to the metal vice front and rear, and are barely parallel. However the tail vice screw is a ripper. These metal components cost less than $100 in total. I put the additional bit of jarrah onto the front side of the pine to beef up the work area a bit and provide a more durable front edge to the work area. The only reason I used pine was to help keep down the weight!

 

Putting the beast to the test.
I had a job to do on a different site straight after I have made the beast, so had a good chance to road test it. I was not disappointed. It worked brilliantly.

This job involved removing a customer’s front entry joinery, then installing and modifying a beautiful old piece of art deco joinery obtained from a demolished building and adding two more art deco side light sashes either side. This involved lots of tricky hand work on site, where the beast proved to be invaluable.

 
The holding capacity of the dogs worked really well, and both vices worked well holding components as I made them.
 
The only change I will make will be to add a removable shelf underneath, sitting across the spreaders, as there is nowhere to put tools being used.

December 2019…PLANS ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE! Please go to our ETSY store: https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/TheJoyofWoodStore

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18 Comments

  1. Anonymous on 28 July 2012 at 02:19

    I want to make one!



  2. Lou on 19 December 2013 at 19:46

    Just lovely, thanks for sharing.
    Once again I realise time is a valuable resource I need to create more of….



  3. richardpeeej on 28 April 2016 at 07:34

    Looks a great piece of kit. I must make one of these!..thank you for the idea Greg…



  4. Sergio Gonzalez on 25 January 2017 at 23:15

    This is really cool and I am going to try to make one.



  5. Greg Miller on 26 January 2017 at 22:01

    Great idea, Sergio. I would love to see a photo when you have finished it!



  6. George on 21 March 2017 at 19:13

    Hi Greg, I am currently building a Steroid Stool basically as per your design, but without the tail vice. Questions: how far from the ground should I put the spreaders on the legs? Could you post some pics of the horse + removable shelf?



  7. JoTeri on 2 July 2017 at 23:19

    Awesome. My next project!



  8. Paul Brave on 10 July 2017 at 03:05

    Very nice, the legs and the top are joined with a sort dovetail joint (without glue)?



  9. Anonymous on 3 March 2018 at 04:10

    where can I buy the plans



  10. Greg Miller on 4 March 2018 at 09:11

    Gidday. I am working on drawing up the plans at the moment (a few years late), and hopefully they will be available for sale sometime soon!



  11. Dylan Rooney on 21 March 2018 at 07:56

    How’s progress on the plans? Very interested in buying a set



  12. Greg Miller on 3 April 2018 at 07:55

    slow but steady… hopefully soon!



  13. Rhombus on 28 June 2018 at 07:56

    That looks like a really tidy piece of kit! I'm only just starting to get in to woodworking but I can already tell how super handy it'd be! I'd love to be able to try my hand at putting one together if you put some plans up…



  14. Unknown on 20 July 2018 at 20:55

    Hellou, i'm from Argentina and very interested to see plans, is psible?
    Sorry for my english.
    Congratulations and thanks,
    Mike



  15. Yannick on 31 August 2018 at 13:46

    I am interested too !



  16. Paul Brave on 5 October 2018 at 01:27

    Very nice, what kind of finish did you apply? regards.



  17. Davi Carvalho on 22 October 2018 at 20:58

    Mr. Miller, thanks for your great wood work, I'll make one like yours.



  18. Anonymous on 2 December 2018 at 03:16

    Please, let us know when your drawings are finished. I'm very interested to make one.



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