Folding Step Ladder

My DIL and her husband recently had a floor to ceiling shelving unit built and needed a ladder to access the top shelves so I volunteered to make one, having exactly zero experience in making ladders. After researching online I decided on a basic design, and since there were a lot of angles and moving parts involved I started with a prototype made from scrap plywood. That turned out to be a good decision, as there was a lot of tweaking to make the ladder fold smoothly with the legs laying flat. 

I had planned on using Walnut, but with its popularity I was having no luck finding clear, straight grain stock which I deemed mandatory for this project. I opted for Sapele with beautiful straight grain, and as an added bonus was less expensive. However, I’m not a fan of the red tones in Sapele and it didn’t fit in with their color scheme, so after some testing on scraps I used a gel stain for a darker, contemporary look. All pieces were pre stained to avoid build up in the corners. The only part that’s different is the top step which is a piece of Walnut burl 1/4” veneer glued to plywood. 

I did a dry assembly once all pieces were milled and holes drilled in the proper locations based on the prototype, and everything was working well. The legs were joined with 3/8” floating tenons to the legs and held my weight (195 lbs.) with no problems, but I decided to be extra cautious to avoid any potential catastrophes. I glued a support piece below each leg and secured it to the legs with 1/4” steel pins to make a very sturdy joint. 

I finished with 2 coats of Osmo PolyX, which will hopefully hold up well since it’s a finish designed for floors. The kids are very happy, and I definitely learned some new skills in this project.