I learned something recently regarding the proportion of components within a project. If it looks wrong, it probably is.
In January I posted about
making an undercarriage for a step stool. I just finished another one, but I made the connecting tenons a little beefier.
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| New stool on left, earlier one on right |
You can see on the connecting rails of the earlier stool that the ends just seem too small (well it seemed to me, anyway). The tenons were 1/2" diameter, fitting into legs that were about 1 1/4" diameter where they connect. In the more recent stool, the tenons are 5/8" and that 1/8" difference seems to make all the difference in the world!
Maybe a closer look will help:
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| Earlier stool with 1/2" tenons |
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| New stool with 5/8" tenons |
I'm making these legs and rails without a lathe. It's possible that the uneven and slightly asymmetric shape of the rail in the earlier step stool contributes to the feeling of poor proportion. But the newer step stool just
looks so much more pleasing. And it looks stronger, too!
I'm sure most people (non-woodworkers, that is) wouldn't even notice a difference. And probably I wouldn't have noticed a few years ago either. Learning is a good thing.
