Mary Ostler

A.T. War is near at hand, and I have procrastinated on the A&S competition. So with the pool of days diminishing quickly, I decided I better get on with it. My entry is going to be a pole lathe turned triangular stool. I had previously turned a triangular back stool, so it should be a fairly easy build as all the confusing stuff I have previously puzzled out.

Why a stool though?. The competition is to make something on the theme of WAR. Stool doesn’t sound very war like. Well, I am not a fighter, just a mere ostler in the south of Tir Righ (England) . If a war was to break out near my inn, I would have to use what was near at hand. A stool although no match for a true weapon, will still stun one of those Avie bastards when I smash it over their bacon obsessed heads. Just Say’n

So I took a trip to the magical fun time shop of Awesomeness (Windsor Plywood – Burnaby), and saw much to my delight that pear wood slabs were on sale. Not a commonly used wood for furniture construction, but considering I live in an orchard rich area it is probable. Pear wood is an amazing wood, as it is resistant to alot of tear out issues you find in alot of other wood species. I took a slab that had some nice hartwood/sapwood sections. The change in color ads so much awesomeness to wood. The slab was almost big enough to get two full stools out of it. The second stool I will build will have a bit of dogwood to make up for the missing pieces.

I still haven’t got around to making a rip saw. I turned to my trusty table saw to cut the slab down to 1.75″  board. I love the color contrast.

Earlier in the year I was given a new live center for my lathe. Sadly my tail stock doesn’t have a moris taper on it, thus rendering my new toy kind of useless. Useless except for using it in the head stock for pole lathe applications. This is a big improvement on the old conversion method that had me remove the motor belt. I still had alot of motor resistance, but this new method is effortless.

Short video to show the action of the lathe. The treadle is getting hung up on other machinery, but otherwise is a workable solution.

The three legs of the stool turned, and waiting to be drilled.