Man Uses An Angle Grinder To Transform Logs Into Luxury Bar Stools

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If you want something unique for your home, there's nothing quite like making it yourself, be that with fabric, pottery, metal, or wood. Over on YouTube, Ben Uyeda of the HomeMadeModern channel shows us how to carve luxury, hourglass-shaped bar stools from a solid block of cedar wood using an angle grinder. An angle grinder is more usually associated with cutting masonry or metal, and a tool that comes in handy during a kitchen remodel for cutting stone, but it can be turned into a woodworking tool by swapping the standard disks for more specialized wood carving discs.

Before we get to that, let's look at the basic construction. Uyeda's stools are made from four 6-by-6 cedar posts glued together to form a large block. Cedar is an attractive wood containing natural oils that resist insect attack and rot, and some places stock it at that size. However, finding pine and other softwoods is usually easier and less expensive. The oils in cedar can also make it challenging to glue sections together. Standard PVA may not be successful, but Uyeda successfully uses Titebond III Ultimate Wood Glue in his YouTube video.

The creator demonstrates various methods for removing a wedge of cedar from each 6-by-6 post. These will roughly form the "waist" of each hourglass-shaped stool. A Ryobi reciprocating saw is one of the tools used, and it seems to accomplish the task with the least amount of effort required. After the four pieces are glued together, large clamps will be required to hold them in place. Ratchet straps like those for securing trailer loads are an alternative if you have them.

The sawdust generated by this DIY project can cause respiratory problems if inhaled, so it's important to protect yourself before getting started. A battery-powered mask like the creator uses can be expensive. While you may not want to spend that much, you should still look for the best mask for sanding wood that you can get for your budget.

The next step after gluing the block together is to carve and refine the shape of the hourglass with an angle grinder. There are several options for turning an angle grinder into a wood carving tool. "I use this spiny-looking, sea-urchin type attachment, and I've had really good results with it," Ben Uyeda explained on YouTube, "It lasts a really long time, and it removes material, particularly in a soft wood like cedar, really fast." The Kutzall Carving Disc Extreme Coarse is one such shaping disc used by Uyeda, but Amazon also has an interesting WORKEASE Angle Grinder Wood Carving Disc Set. It includes cutting discs similar to those from Kutzall and flap discs, which are made up of sandpaper sheets. These can help remove score marks made by the cutter.

This is the stage where your creativity takes over. As Uyeda explained in the video, he wanted to eliminate all the flat spots and edges around the seat and foot of the stool so that the shape was organic. How you do this, and the extent to which you cut into the block, is entirely up to you. You can define the shape any way you want as long as you don't go too deeply into the center of the hourglass and weaken it.

After contouring the seat and smoothing out what he could with the angle grinder, Ben Uyeda removed some of the material from the base so that the stool could sit on the floor without rocking. Getting this right while keeping the stool visually vertical may require care and patience. Next, he swapped to another tool. "The angle grinder is fast, but it carves really rough," said Uyeda (via YouTube),"So I switched to my orbital sander to really smooth out the carving marks from the angle grinder and start to contour the lines and blend everything together." A few gaps that appeared were filled with wood putty as Uyeda sanded the whole thing smooth. How much sanding you do for your own barstools depends on how fine a finish you need. Work through successively higher grits (60 then 80, then 120-grit, for example) until you're happy.

If you choose cedar, the natural oils mean it doesn't necessarily need a finishing coat, but adding one can improve its resistance to wear and tear. From a visual point of view, wax can be a simple method for creating the perfect wood finish and often enhances the grain. However, water-based polyurethane offers greater protection against spills and everyday knocks. "I went with the oil and wax simple finish, which is great when you have a piece that you want to get a little abused and develop that patina over time," said Uyeda. If you used pine or other kind of softwood lumber, you'll definitely want to apply a protective coating. You might also want to think about staining the stools to match your decor, and there are several products available that can achieve both.