How to make a folding ladder from wood

Storing a standard ladder when it's not needed requires a lot of space. This creates some inconvenience, especially if there is little of it. By making a wooden ladder foldable, you can get rid of the disadvantages of a conventional ladder. Any adult can cope with such work.

Will need

Materials:

square wooden beam;
screws;
latch lock with eye;
half-ring screw;
protective varnish.

Tools: circular saw with jointer, measuring and marking tools, hand saw, clamps, router, drill, circular saw, grinder.

Manufacturing process of wooden folding ladder for household use

We cut the square beam of the required section into halves in the longitudinal direction. We process the sides of the workpieces using appropriate woodworking machines and tools. These are blanks for the future two support beams or bowstrings.

We mark the halves of the beam, cut out a part along the longitudinal axis and make a bevel on the remaining whole part. In two passes of the router, we make a longitudinal groove of a given width from the inside of the narrow part of the workpiece.Having replaced the cutter, we use the same router to round all the corners of the workpieces along their entire length.

We fold the blanks so that they form, as it were, a whole beam, and divide the contacting parts of the blanks into several equal parts. In the marked places, stepping back the same distance from the edge, we drill holes to the groove.

We divide a wooden block of a given rectangular cross-section into 5 parts 35 cm long. We round their ends and drill through transverse holes on both sides. These are future crossbars or steps.

We insert the steps cut from the block one by one into the groove of one of the support beams, align the holes and fasten them with screws. Then we insert the free ends of the steps one by one into the groove of the second support beam and also screw them with screws, aligning the holes.

We bring the strings closer to each other, while the steps, turning around the screws, take a longitudinal position and the support beams converge. In this position, we screw a latch lock with an eyelet to the center of one of the bowstrings, and a hook to the other.

We screw a half-ring screw into the end of one of the support beams. Using it, the folded ladder can be hung on a nail, where it will not take up much space. If necessary, open the latch and use the ladder for its intended purpose.