Finishing the Three Legged Stool

 

  The stool is 10 inches across and 12 inches tall.  The seat is ash, the legs are poplar and the wedges are cedar, This turned out to be a good little project and with careful set up not a difficult one after all.

   

  The internet told me that the typical angle for the leg holes was 12 degrees.  I decided to make a proper jig to hold the work while drilling.  The last time I did this I just wedged the work piece and ended up with one leg hole misaligned, this time perfect.  The jig will now hang on the wall with all the others, after it gets a coat of bright paint.

  

  In action the only trick was to solidly clamp the work piece to the jig, to the drill press table. I think it is past time to address the challenges of clamping to the drill press table.  I've got the time, I want to make more stools and tables, so...get on with it.

  

  After the holes were drilled and the legs attached I needed to glue a couple of pieces of bark back on. As well as make repairs to my mitre saw jig. And assemble the paper towel holder for our laundry room.  All those things are being held together with glue.  Glue works great when I give it time to set.  When I put up the sign, I remember. Visual aids are important teaching tools for some people. (me)

   A three legged stool was on my "make it"  list, as well as bellows, wooden nut cracker, spinning wheel among other things.  It feels good to check off something on the list.

  cheers, ianw

 

the other thing I have been doing with my time, thinking spring

Flattening, Planing, Scrapping and Sanding

  The current project is a three legged stool using an ash round as the seat.

the half round marble table top is used as my 'flat' reference surface in the shop.
I found it put out as garbage by a neighbour one day, a real find.

  My Brother in Law cut down an ash tree a couple of seasons ago and generously gave me a dozen rounds of various sizes. The wood is  gradually getting turned in to cheese boards, clocks etc. This round will have three legs set in as a small side table/stool, plant stand.  The rounds were cut from the tree trunk with a chain saw and so are pretty rough. Even with skill and care a chain saw leaves plenty of marks on the wood.

   The  challenge is making the flat face smooth using a reasonable amount of time and effort.  Having now flattened several rounds I think I have arrived at the most efficient method.  

electric power planer.

 I bought this planer on clearance from a booth at a wood show a few years ago. It is fairly short and somewhat awkward to use but...it cost $10.00.  As a rule I don't use a power planer but for hacking away at end grain like this it works very well.  Once the face of the round is flattened somewhat,  hand scrappers are the next step.  Again the scrapper can be used aggressively but still controlled.  The final stage is random orbital sander time, 80 grit and up.

  The end grain planing leaves a pile of rough saw dust, not nice shavings.

   The legs are poplar 2 x 2's 14 inches long.  Initially, since the power planer was on the bench I used it to knock the corners off the legs before turning them on the lathe. Funnily enough the power planer was not the best tool for the job.

  Quickly I turned to using my jack plane to ease the  corners, and the result is much better for the shop's air, and as quick, in my opinion.  My Grand kids used to call the shavings feathers. They liked cedar feathers best, don't we all!

  It is quick, easy and quiet using a hand plane.

  It took about 20 minutes a leg to turn on the mini lathe, and sand ready to be set into the seat/top of the stool/table.

   Next, decide the leg angle, make a jig and drill the holes using my drill press. 

   Planning and set up will take longer than the job. 

cheers, ianw

  

Prep Day in the Work Shop

  Even before I could begin today's work I had to clean up last week's left overs.  Building in the shop with my Grand Children tends to be messy.  I used these two tools to roughly shape the hull of our latest boat.  For years the blades have been projected by card board and duct tape. This morning I decided that they deserved more respect than that.  Especially the draw knife, it is many many years old and was made for my late Grandfather by a local smith in Bracebridge, Ontario.  As tools go it is excellent, razor sharp and remarkably easy to control for its size. 

  Today I took the few minutes necessary to make proper guards for these tools .  I ripped some 2 x 3 spruce and used my table saw to cut a slot in the guard. Unlike a stop gap job of cardboard and duct tap, I made the guards fit properly, not just adequately.  Once made I went the extra step to sand the work and break all the edges.  I have a supply of bicycle inner tubes on hand, they make excellent heavy duty elastic bands. 

  A couple of silly little jobs like this can be done with very limited available tools.  When you have a shop it is amazing how many tools come into use, cause they are available.  I used my table saw, my band saw, my 6 x 24 inch belt sander, glue and clamps as well as hand sand paper. Don't forget the drill press and drill bits and block plane.  All those tools aren't necessary but it makes replacing card board and duct tape easy and rewarding.  Each time I reach for my draw knife and push knife I will know the blades were safe and will be sharp. These guards will also serve as a lesson to my Grand children to take proper care of their stuff.

  Yesterday's project was filling in the crack in my ash wood round.  I used a variety of power tools to flatten the round first. I began with my power hand planer to knock the roughest stuff off. I find the power planer pretty aggressive, or at least that's how I use it and it survives the treatment. 

 I next moved to a 5 inch grinder with a 36 grit disk and then my 4 1/2 inch grinder with a 100 grit disk.

  The next challenge was fitting a wedge into the big crack. I decided there was no way the repair would be invisible so I didn't even try. First I traced the crack onto a bit of paper then transferred the shape  to a piece of spruce and cut it out, (more or less) on the band saw. Then it was a trial and error, fit and fuss process until I got the wedge shaped more or less to match the crack.

  I used Gorilla Glue and some filler putty to firmly install the wedge. Then I did some extra sanding and it looked better than I had planned.  Originally the round was destined to be a three legged stool, now it is going to be a side table in our living room.

  The change in plan for the round of Ash means that today I was gluing up some wood to become  four legs. 

 After facing the boards on my jointer I glued them together in pairs. I will cut them into squares and turn them on my lathe.  One pair of boards couldn't be glued to day, they were wet, my out side lumber stack cover leaked. No trouble I will not have time to turn all four legs in one day.  My back is getting better, or I am getting better at coping.  I can work in my shop for 3 or 4 hours in a day now,  which is not perfect, but it is much better than no hours a day which it has been in the recent past.

  

  While I was gluing wood today I also re-sawed some spruce to 1/4 inch for a tea box that I plan to make.  I squared the board on my jointer, then re-sawed the boards on my 14 inch band saw and then planed them to thickness with my 12 inch planner.  If I were doing lots of thin board, small projects I would like to have a thickness sander.  At this point I'm set for tools, but...you never know the future. 

Live Edge Projects- finished

 Traditionally 'live edge' projects leave the bark on to add texture and interest to the table/bowl/ charcuterie board etc.  Recently I have made a couple of things following this thinking. My most recent projects made use of Ash wood.  In our area, (ontario) the emerald ash borer beetle has attacked and killed millions of board feet of mature ash trees.  There are worm holes in some of my latest projects, however, when the bark is stripped off  completely the result is interesting and a bit different.

  

  This is a 12 inch round of ash.  I removed most of the bark, actually most of it dried and fell off, I just helped it along.  The edge is a different colour and texture and this will be turned into a three legged stool/side table. It will sit beside a chair and hold a snack and drink or can be used for a causal seat when there is a crowd. 

  The next barkless project turned out to be amazing.  I had an oval shaped cut off and began carving the inside out to make a bowl.  ( see previous blog) Carving end grain ash is definately a power tool task.  I used my arbortech turbo plane to rough the bowl.  Next was time using grinding bits in a drill and smaller bits in a dremel too. I then used just about every kind and size of sander I own. The finish was mostly one inch sanding disks and hand work.  The inside is good, but the star of this project is when I pried all the bark off.

  The bowl is a 14 inch oval and the entire outside is this mass of worm channels.  I gave the bowl two coats of Minwax water based sealer and two coats of water based polycrylic. I am happy with rhe result, application is real easy and clean up is effortless.  I know I get a good finish more regularly than I did with oil based varnish and never have issues with runs.  

  The bowl is finished inside so will be for dry things, chips etc. only.

cheers ianw

Ash Round

   I turned 4 legs on my mini lathe for the end table.  I split the ends of the legs, hammered them  into the top and drove in wedges. Everything is firmly connected without glue.

  The next part of the project is the part I like least.  Sanding, sanding, sanding. To sand the legs I will use my finishing sander instead of my random orbital, I find the non-orbital movement of the finishing sander easier to control on rounded surfaces.  The legs are elm. Elm is tough, has an interesting grain and is a bit stringy.  Finishing the legs will involve several coat of shellac to raise the grain, with lots of sanding between each coat.  I really like the final result but it does take time to get the grain under control and smooth. 

  

  You can see from my lathe set up that I really need to develop some type of dust collection system and a much better way to deal with my tools as I work.  My lathe is on a rolling cabinet that is great for moving it around the shop but not a very good work station.   I am thinking/planning what to build to make wood turning more efficient. 

don't do this at home.

  The legs were almost too long to fit my lathe.  Honestly,  the legs were too long, and I should never have run the tail stock out so far.  I was more by good luck than superior technique that the spindle didn't come loose while I was turning the legs.

  These legs are rounded off squares, not totally round spindles.  That means that there are four narrow flats as well as four rounded corners on each leg.  When it came time to sand the legs I was only able to sand the top shoulder and the round feet with the lathe running. The middle of the leg had to be sanded after it came off the lathe.  It would have been quicker to make the legs round and finish them on the lathe, it is easier to get a glossy finish that way. However, the rounded squares make for a more interesting and less expected leg.

  This small table a first try. I know a couple of things that I will do differently when I make my next small table.  I also think I am still going to make a little three legged stool.

cheers, ianw