learning tower

[LCHIEN]

The original idea - allows a toddler to participate in kitchen and countertop work, or at least to view safely. I guess it also allows the mom to see where there child is while they work in the kitchen.


The base - an Ikea stool $15.

So I bought a stool. I thought it would be easy to clone - it was actually difficult with compound angles all over the place.
I did make one successfully but $15 would have better deal!

The top was not so difficult. I chamfered all the corners.

She wanted one for a friend with a toddler the same age as my Grandson - 14 months.
They're going to try some creative painting schemes, I can' t wait to see.
I built two tops, one bottom stool, one stool from Ikea.



I'm going to add a small shelf on the front. Pictures are in my kitchen, with the shelf, the top should be about level with my daughter's reported countertop height.

Anyway, interesting project.

[leehljp]

Cloning all angles on that would drive me nuts. I made a simple stool with compound angles and it boggled my mind with just 4 legs! I managed to visualize all 4 and finish it, but the one you have there - 6, SIX! Four of one length and two of another length. THEN, all of the braces, some with compound and some simple angle cuts. It does make you feel good when it is mastered!

Looks great!

[LCHIEN]

Cloning all angles on that would drive me nuts. I made a simple stool with compound angles and it boggled my mind with just 4 legs! I managed to visualize all 4 and finish it, but the one you have there - 6, SIX! Four of one length and two of another length. THEN, all of the braces, some with compound and some simple angle cuts. It does make you feel good when it is mastered!

Looks great!

All the horizontals were single bevel.
The verticals were compound. The two short ones have the exact same direction angles as the opposite corner long leg. So that meant cutting the back left leg and then leaving the settings the same to cut the front right legs. Then change the settings and make the back right leg and the front left legs. Keeping track of it was tough - a lot of masking tape with legends like front left bottom was the only way. Oh yeah, the bottom end of the top front leg has a single bevel, not compound like I assumed - had to make those twice. The angles were about 5.5° by my measurement so they were small enough to be confusing just looking at them. If it wasn't for the labels it would have been impossible.

And BTW, there were six vertical leg lengths as the upper and lower legs were different. And Four lengths for the eight horizontal stretchers. And measuring lengths on compound-mitered pieces is not the easiest thing to do either! You get different lengths on all four corners of the leg.


All in all, it was an education.

[LCHIEN]

Satisfied customer

[JR]

Cool idea. I like the little shelf added to the top/front. It should keep fingers from getting pinched.

Good thing you ohmed them out before putting them into service. Safety first!

[LCHIEN]

...

Good thing you ohmed them out before putting them into service. Safety first!

Haha, too many projects going on at the same time!

[LCHIEN]

Here's what it looked like after daughter applied paint and stain finishing:

[cwsmith]

Now that's a very neat project indeed.

A few decades ago when our little guy was curious about what his Mom was doing in the kitchen, she'd have to sit him in his high chair or a bit later move everything to the kitchen table so he could participate. A stool like this would have been ideal and a lot less worrisome in having him participate.

I very much enjoyed the recent series of Top Chef Junior, and was absolutely astounded with the knowledge and skill of those kids... the top winners being just nine years old. Quite surprising was the often mention that they started cooking when they were barely five and six. I wonder if they had a platform/stool similar to this, in which to get started. If not, then something like this could launch a whole to batch of young chefs.

Thanks for the Post,

CWS