Surprisingly few photos remain of what I consider my most
difficult project. While it wasn't the biggest or fanciest, it
took the most thought and planning to build. It was a ladder to
reach the upper shelves in my library. I wanted it to be sturdy
and of furniture quality, but also something I could move around
easily and would store out of the way.

The ladder is made of cherry and walnut, with no metallic
fasteners. All the joints are blind dovetail and pinned with
dowels turned from walnut. The difficulty lay in the THREE angles
to be considered: the ladder's steps needed to be level when it
was leaned against the bookcase shelves, the ladder was flared
outward rear-to-front and was tapered from top to bottom. The
top of the ladder has a flat walnut piece with a hole in it that
permitted me to hang it from one of several walnut pegs I mounted
on stiles in the library shelving. To prevent the flat piece with
a hole in it from splitting, it was formed from handmade walnut
3-ply layup. Where it rested against the shelves, I partially
inlaid leather strips on the back to prevent scarring either the
ladder or the shelves. The steps were routed with 1/4" grooves
and inlaid with walnut dowels for traction. The 4 cherry stiles
making up the "vertical" pieces were separated by walnut
handholds.

The ladder was a bit heavy for pure utility, but I felt that the
looks made up for that. As you can also see from the scars in the
finish, the ladder got good use over the years.

--
Nonny

What does it mean when drool runs
out of both sides of a drunken
Congressman's mouth?

The floor is level.