Praise for my shop stools

Naturally, it’s great for sitting on, but standing on a stool, while reaching for something high up in a cabinet or on a shelf, is something I do regularly in my shop.

I have two shop stools. One is a rough-around-the-edges plywood stool I made over 20 years ago. It’s the most used of the two stools and is about 18″ high, with a rectangular surface, making it great for sitting, but also perfect for standing. It’s stable, and as long as I don’t mistakenly step off it while I’m standing on it, all is good. It’s also lightweight, so it can be quickly and easily moved around the shop where it’s needed. This stool has supported (or at least helped support) many a cabinet side, sideboard end or table leg over the years, as my assembly surface needs expanding from time to time. This stool was made in about 15 minutes, as I just needed a quick surface to sit on to take care of a repetitive job I was working on.

My second stool is not only much taller, it’s much nicer. Mark Salusbury made it many years ago when he wrote an article about how to make a three-legged stool with turned legs. When he finished it, he gave the stool to me. Nice guy!

If you look through our back catalogue of issues, you’ll see many examples of both the fancy stool and (especially) the rough, plywood stool in use. It’s often in the background of our photos.

I’ve taken both stools (especially the plywood version) to many jobsites over the years for a wide range of reasons. I also often eat a quick snack on the plywood stool when I take a short break from work. There’s a decent chance I’ve spent more time using both of these stools combined than I have any machine in the shop. My table saw likely comes in a close second.

From time to time I even use the plywood stool to hold a task light. I clamp a short length of plywood offcut or a piece of solid wood to the stool, then clamp a task light to the end of the piece of material. I can then move the stool around the shop as needed, as the footprint and weight are just enough to keep that light right where I need it.

What would I do without it?

Honestly, I’d be virtually lost without these two stools. Sitting, supporting a workpiece, reaching, holding task lighting — there’s little the plywood stool can’t help me with. And the three-legged stool takes care of all the sitting tasks my plywood stool can’t.

Have you made a shop stool? I’m guessing most range from utilitarian to dilapidated, but hopefully they all fill a void that would otherwise be impossible (or at least problematic) to fill. Email me a photo of your shop stool. If it shows it in action, that would be even better. We all need to take a load off from time to time, and I’m sure there’s a wide range of answers to that problem across the country.