Dragon Stool Part 5
Short video this week, tapering the legs and shaping the seat. The leg tapering is pretty straightforward – lay out the cuts, bandsaw close to the line, plane to the line. I then use a round-over bit in a router table to round over the corners.
To shape the seat round, I use my disc sander. I could use my lathe, but because of the grain direction on the edge of the top, the disc sander works better and avoids tear-out. It also gives me an opportunity to show this method, which I use fairly often to get things round.
I use a small dowel on which to rotate the part. The dowel is inserted into a hole in a piece of plywood, a hole is drilled in the center of the part (the seat), the part is located on the dowel, and the plywood is clamped to the disc sander table. I tighten the clamps just enough to hold the plywood in place, but loose enough so I can tap the part closer to the disc as I refine the diameter.
The process works really well. I have used it to create parts as small as about 1-1/2″ diameter. By tilting the table, I can create a tapered plug, which comes in quite handy at times (like repairing a misplaced hole). Of course, you have a hole on the underside of the part, but that is typically not a problem.
