8. Drill weep holes, and chamfer the edge of dowel holes on the inside face of the sides. Dowel joints are simple, strong and time-tested. But they have a few quirks. One is that a snug dowel tends to act like a piston, compressing glue and air in front of it. This means you have forces acting to push or hold the joint apart, when you want it tight. The design of the dowel pin alleviates much of this. Store-bought pins are grooved or fluted, which gives excess glue a way out. They also have chamfered ends, which mainly make them easier to insert, but also create some space at the tips. Woodworkers often leave 1/16” of an inch at either end to accommodate a little glue, and you can certainly use this method. In this instance, I prefer to use weep holes through the end pieces, which are small, say 1/16” diameter, holes into the dowel chambers. With this method, you can seat the dowel fully, for the strongest possible joint, and any extra pressure has an exit. The weep hole will disappear with a little filler. Use a small square, set about a 1/16” less than the depth of the hole, and drill into the very end of the chamber. You only need to penetrate about 1/4” and you will feel it when the bit hits air.
Chamfering refers to the cutting of a tiny bevel around the dowel holes. Do this only on the inside face of the sides. (Photo 9) Use a countersink bit and take a small cut; no need to exceed 1/16”. The purpose is to remove the edge of the hole, which can swell upward from the moisture in the glue and prevent the joint from closing easily and completely.
Photo 9: With a countersink bit, cut a small chamfer around the dowel holes on the interior face of the side. This eliminates the chance that edges can swell outward when glue is applied and create an open or weak joint.
9. If you plan to route round-overs on the edges of your project, route the inside edges of your leg curves now. It will be impossible to reach these with a router once the base is assembled. (For the feet, I prefer to just break the sharp bottom edges with sandpaper in a later step.)
10. Apply a light coat of glue to the mating edges and dowel holes. A small dowel or chopstick helps to spread glue inside the dowel hole. Work one joint at a time. Attach the two ends to one side. On the final side, you’ll need to glue and dowel the last two joints at the same time. It’s important to work quickly. And have a mallet and pair of pliers handy. Some people like to seat the dowels in one half of the joint, brush any glue that squeezes out over the exposed portion of the dowels, and attach the mating piece. My advice is, don’t try this with more than two dowels at a time. Slight differences in dowel angle can make it difficult to press a side down over three dowels at a time without binding. As soon as you can, clamp the assembly side to side with as many clamps as you can fit. Don’t worry about glue that squeezes out. You’ll scrape it off later. The dowels will remain proud of the surface by about 1/4”.
11. After the glue has dried, unclamp the base. Scrape off the glue. I like an old plane blade for this job. Others use cabinet scrapers. With a flush cutting saw or sharp chisel, trim the dowels as close to the surface as you can. Sand them flush, and remove the dust. Now is a good time to fill your weep holes and any other imperfections. You can use a commercial wood putty or make your own filler from glue and sawdust. Allow your filler to dry and sand the base through 100 grit.
12. Mill recesses for the figure 8 fasteners. I use a Forstner bit, usually 5/8” or 11/16” depending on the specific hardware, to drill recesses in the top of the base, about 7/16” from the outside edge. (Photo 10) To use this method, your drill press will need to have sufficient vertical capacity with the bit in place. Many benchtop drills don’t. It also helps to have an extended table on the drill press so that the stool base can stand squarely under the chuck. This can be as simple as a piece of MDF clamped to the stock drill table. If you lack the set-up for drilling, you can always cut shallow notches on a table saw with a dado blade, or use a handsaw and chisel. The overhanging top will hide the notches from most angles. In either case, you want the hardware to sit flush with the top face of the base.