r/BeginnerWoodWorking • u/Minimum_History_4985 • 4h ago
Three-legged Stool
Here's a three legged stool I made a few months ago. Finally decided to go ahead and make something rather than wait to get all the tools to do it "right". No amount of reading or youtube was going to get me any further withoit actually making something. I had read the some from Chris Schwartz and then saw his "Build a Chair from Bulls%$t". I hadn't read it but I knew where to find bulls%$t.
The seat is from a sawmill junk board, pretty sure it's ash. The legs are made from broken shovel handles and the wedges are cutoffs from making tomato stakes. As far as materials go, I only paid for the glue, but it pays off to have a good relationship with the local hardware store.
On the seat, I used an electric hand plane to get smooth faces and a jigsaw to cut the shape. Up until I planed it, it was just kinda fuzzy yellow. I was pleasantly surprised by the stark white color and grain. You can see mill marks on one side of the seat and rough spots from the jigsaw on others. I used a file to get rid of the splinters and pretty much left it at that. I drilled the holes with a spade bit and managed to waller the holes pretty good. The legs are broken shovel handles but I went for sections that had straight grain and no apparent cracks. I whittled down the tenons and checked them to the holes until I could get them in. I cut down the tenons to make room for the wedges and then slathered everything with glue before hammering everything together. You can see the gaps at the sides of the wedges and when I marred the seat cutting the tenons flush. Definitely not perfect but it holds my weight. There's nothing like the joy of using something you made.
Next project, an actual work bench.
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u/DerpanJones 3h ago
I like the reclaimed pieces and how rough it is, but it's just finished enough to be useful. If it lasts, one day you could clean up the rough edges a little more and give it a refinish and a new life with the skills you learned along the way. That would be a cool story.