Woodturning Projects: Three Legged Stool
by Alan Holtham

Most of my woodturning projects are born out of some form of necessity, the aim being to produce a practical object with a distinctly useful function. This one however was born out of sheer exasperation, but nevertheless resulted in a very functional little piece of furniture. My youngest daughter is just at that very awkward age when it comes to putting on her own shoes. She cannot quite do them on her own but is now too big to lift up onto the worktop where I usually hold her captive. Standing still for more than two seconds also seems out of the question, and we always end up with a major conflict whenever we have to go out and the ‘s’ word is mentioned. After a particularly harrowing experience recently, I foolishly declared that I was going to make a ‘magic stool’ that wouldn’t let her go until her shoes were on properly and on the right feet. As a father of three I should know by now that any promises made to children are sacrosanct, and repetitive daily enquiries about the whereabouts of the magic stool eventually goaded me into actually making one.
The brief was simple, a small but sturdy stool to accommodate a boisterous three year old, but one which was to remain functional and decorative after the magic had worked and she was able to do her own shoes, hopefully in just a few short months if I was to have any chance of remaining sane! I have made many small stools like this over the years, usually with a much plainer design, but some particularly nicely figured olive ash seemed to be begging for a more decorative approach. I thought that a chunky top, really well rounded, coupled to three ‘Windsor’ style legs would provide the perfect solution, simple, stable and safe, with just a touch of elegance. I must admit to being rather pleased with the final result.

I took all the material out of one short board of 2” ash, cutting the biggest diameter I could get for the seat, a bare 11”, and then three legs at 12 ½” long, picture 1. I started with this seat blank, getting an initial fixing with a faceplate screwed on to what is to be the top surface, picture 2. Take care here though, because if you use long screws you will leave screwholes that can’t be turned away when you eventually come to shape the top. I used ¾” screws in a 4” faceplate, so the overall projection into the wood was only ½”.

My drill press is relatively small, and there was not enough height to fit everything on the table and get the bit in as well. So I swung the table out of the way and used the base, but this now required a 2” offcut to bring the height back, it looks more precarious than it really was, picture 9. Notice that I am holding the blank by gripping the faceplate in the drill vice, and this just sits on the angle jig. I transferred the leg splay angle from the drawing using a sliding bevel, and with the aid of a bit of straight rod in the drill chuck adjusted the jig angle until it was the same. Then replace the rod with a drill bit of some sort, I used a forstner pattern, picture 10. These are better than a sawtooth for this type of job as they give a cleaner entry when you are drilling at an angle, but a sawtooth will do if you don’t have a forstner. Before you actually do the boring, arrange the blank so that the pencil line from the centre to the drilling position is perfectly true with the bit, picture 11. This ensures that the legs all splay out equally. My bit was ¾” diameter so I ran it at 700 rpm, withdrawing it regularly to keep it cutting freely, picture 12. Forstners soon burn around the rim if you force and then clog them, and they are expensive, so take your time. Also make sure that you hold the blank securely to stop it ‘creeping’ on the jig, the holes must be really accurate. Repeat the process for all three holes, picture 13, using the depth stop on the drill to get them all the same depth.
Now remount the top back on the lathe, shaping the underside to whatever profile you want. I dished it slightly to remove some of the weight, picture 14, and also put in a recess for reverse chucking.

Sand and polish this to the finish of your choice, but you will have to just be a little bit careful here. The spinning holes have the potential danger for snagging either your fingers, the abrasive or the cloth, picture 15. The remedy is to sand with your hand very flat to the surface as shown, so that the paper trails, rather than using a very square on approach. This way the danger is minimised, and it just feels a little uncomfortable. I wanted a satin finish that was hard wearing and quick to apply, so settled on three coats of cellulose sanding sealer rubbed in with a cloth, picture 16, flatted down between coats and then topped off with a coat of pastewax.
With the underside completed reverse it onto the combination chuck,
picture 17, and profile the face. If you just reduce the overall thickness a little, and dish the centre you should be able to remove the faceplate screwholes, picture 18. Now you can see why it was important to keep them shallow. I wanted a really rounded edge profile, so form this with the bowl gouge, my preference here is for a ¼” one, and then sand the whole top thoroughly. A Velcro disc in the drill makes short work of the sanding, picture 19 and allows you to really blend in the edge. Finish this in the same way as the underside, thoroughly burnishing in the pastewax with steel wool, picture 20, before polishing with a soft cloth.
Now you can start on the legs, and these are accurately marked and mounted between centres, but as we need to turn both ends down quite small I used a 5/8” diameter two-pronged centre, picture 21.
These do not have the grip of the standard four prong one, so make sure they are knocked in firmly or the wood will spin on the wings drilling a deep groove in the end of the work. If you look closely at the pictures of the finished legs you will see that this actually happened on one of them, and it is very difficult to get it to grip again afterwards, so be warned! The leg shaping is a simple turning job, roughing down and removing a lot of the waste with a ¾” flat gouge, picture 22.

I began the shaping at the tailstock end, forming the dowel that was to fit into the seat top. There is a really good tip here for getting this just right. Callipers are OK but can vary a little, so while you are drilling the seat holes, just bore a hole in a piece of thin scrapwood with the same drill, picture 23. Mark this clearly with the diameter for future use, and then slip it over the tailstock centre before remounting the work. Now all you have to do is stop the lathe occasionally and just try and slide it onto the tenon. After a few tries you should have the perfect fit, and you can get it just as tight as you want it. The template may spin with the wood a bit but I just roughly cut the corners off so it is quite safe. Try it sometime it really does work well. Cut the detail cleanly to leave sharp corners, picture 24, it makes the job look so much more professional, and as usual I always incise in with the skew at each change of detail to make the whole profile look crisp, picture 25.
The first leg is easy of course, but copying the other two is a bit trickier. Use your callipers and dividers to accurately mark out the main dimensions, picture 26. Another tip is to make sure the blanks are all exactly the same length before you start, and then set out the dimensions working from either end. This way you don’t accumulate errors, which show up more dramatically, if you work it all from one end. There is something very satisfying about seeing the finished components accumulate on the bench, picture 27, particularly if things have gone well and they are vaguely similar!
The assembly is very straightforward, just smear a little glue into the hole and bang in the legs, trying to orientate the grain so that it runs in a similar direction to that on the top, picture 28. What could be simpler!
So there is your finished stool, a lovely little project that will probably take you about three hours to make in total, I know my wife has her eye on it for a plant stand as soon as we have solved the shoe problem, I hope that by the time you read this we have!

Picture 28.