Not a bowl

[Sean Hughto]

I'm just a beginner, and have been avidly trying all sorts of stuff on the lathe from bowls, to tops, to candlesticks and spheres. Just to help balance out you bowl and HF types, I thought I'd post a couple recent spindle turning projects. I'd love to see others spindle efforts. Please take this thread as an opportunity to post anything you've got.

First, here's a windsor stool I glued up last night. The stool is based on Mike Dunbar's design form the recent PWW article. I will need to trim the legs and wedged tenons and give it some milk paint, but I'm tickled it came together. I look forward to more chairs!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2726/4188797775_24b9fcccb9.jpg

Here's an even more huble piece: a candle stick I made up from the remaining good stock after I encountered an inclusion defect while turning a stool leg. The stick is maple, and the base is ebony. I juxtaposed it with another picture I took for the heck of it, but just ignore that for our purposes:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2768/4158737415_5af3868155.jpg

Thanks, and I look forward to seeing any spindle stuff you experts have to inspire me with!

[Baxter Smith]

Nice stool! I am a Windsor chair fan but the closest I have come is replacement parts!

[Sean Hughto]

Thanks, Baxter. The angled drilling is the only part that was nerve wracking, but luckily the wood is somewhat forgiving of slight imperfections in the angles. You should go for it!

[John Keeton]

Sean, good job on both! Not sure that the candlestick is more humble, as the turning aspect is probably as involved as the spindles for the stool, if not more so. The contrast in woods is neat. Hard to tell from the pic, but did you dye/stain the maple? May just be the exposure.

The stool is a really neat piece of work. I will have to go back and look for that in PWW, and give it some thought. Given what you have done, do you feel it is possible to drill the holes prior to turning, or would you get too much tear out around the holes? Seems like if it were possible, it would be easier to do on square stock. Never done it, so don't know.

[Rasmus Petersen]

Very nice stool ! im an avid spindelturner myself, mostly because thats where i make my bread and butter work.. But also because most peopel dont do much spindel work... they all want to make bowls and hollowforms..

but again very very nice work..

[Sean Hughto]

Thanks, John. The candle stick was a playful thing. Kinda: "well this piece of wood is no good for a leg, may as well practive some skew work" which suddenly became " Hey this could be a candle stick if I do this and this." I guess that's why it seemed humble to me - it was more or less an accident. Also, as you know, making a form without rules is not nearly so hard as making a duplicate - I'd imagine the test will be whether I can make this guy's partner.

There is nothing on the maple other than some wax I think - maybe some myland's friction stuff. Good grief, I only made it a week or two ago, I can't believe I don't remember more precisely. At least I remember that there was no dye or stain, so that's something, right? ;-)

As far as predrilling, I'm no expert, of course, but I don't think I would do it. You need the pieces to be done to figure out where to place the holes and know how deep to go. In short, you don't have the reference faces and lines, much less angles, until you've made the parts (and in some cases - like the stretcher to leg tenons - put some other parts - like the legs to top - together).

[Sean Hughto]

Thanks, Rasmus. I'd love to see some pictures of your stuff.

[Paul Atkins]

As another spindle turner - good work. Most of my spindles are stair parts, legs and chair repair parts. I've got a hundred bowl blanks, but no time to turn them - yet. I just made a replacement chair in 8 hours, the only turning was the tenons on the rungs.

[Thom Sturgill]

Neat! I have been thinking about a stool for the shop, I'll have to see if I can find the article. And keep the wife from swiping it for the kitchen! - Hmm maybe I see TWO stools in my future! How long are the legs? I may have to put the bed extension on my Jet 1220VS, though I really don't want too tall a stool.

[Sean Hughto]

Here's a link to the article date and some sketch up pics:
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/articleabstract?aid=15438

The article talks about this size (around 20" long legs) and a kitchen stool with longer (around 24"?) legs. The taller stool has a different leg pattern.

[Sean Hughto]

Thanks, Paul. Any shots of your best stairs or chairs?

[Rob Cunningham]

Great job both the stool and the candlestick. For me, spindle turning is a lot more difficult than bowls and hollow forms.

[Toney Robertson]

Cool Stool.

It looks like it would be very stable.

Great job.

Toney

[Paul Atkins]

Sean,
This is one of three staircases in this house that I made the parts for, 12 years ago. I did not do any installation or bend the rail. This is all purpleheart. There were 250 spindles between the three stairs which I did all by hand with no duplicator. I did them in sets of 30 - 50 over a period of a couple of months. The newels were carved after I turned them. I usually don't see the finished projects when I do this type of stuff. I could not find the negatives to scan yet, so these are just photos of photos. Most of the chair parts I've made are for repairs and don't have many pictures for them.

[Ron Erickson]

Sean this is a chair I turned last year. Ron135378

[Sean Hughto]

Paul, that is phenomenal! Beautiful, impressive, superlative work! I never would have thought of stairs in purple heart, but wow!

Thanks a lot for sharing that.

[Sean Hughto]

Ron, that is lovely! It looks like areal comfortable rocker too. I aspire to make some full on turned chairs, and eventually get to the rocker stage. Baby steps - first learn to put legs and stretchers on a stool, right?

Thanks for the picture. I particularly like the shape of the seat. Did you make the plan yourself, or is this more of a reproduction of a historical form?

[Richard Madison]

Nice work Sean. Now if one leg is a little too long and you cut off a little, and then another leg is a little too long and you cut off a little, and then another leg is a little too long - - -

Looks a bit tricky getting it all to fit together at the same time.

[Greg Just]

Sean:

Nice stool. I have had my eyes on the plans for that stool too. In fact, I asked that someone buy my some maple for Christmas for the legs. Hope mine turns out as nice as yours. What type of wood did you use?

[Sean Hughto]

Thanks, Greg. Poplar for the seat and maple for everything else. Have fun. Mike's right that it's not that hard, but helps build some valuable entry level chair turning and building skills.

[Rasmus Petersen]

Paul : that is one breathtaking pice of work!! a dreamjob if you ask me..

[John Keeton]

Sean, There were 250 spindles between the three stairs which I did all by hand with no duplicator.
Paul, in the second pic, third spindle from the right, and the 18th spindle from the right, vary in diameter by about 1/128", but other than that - great job!!:D;):eek::eek::eek:

I just cannot imagine doing that kind of work. That whole job looks awesome. I know you can't take credit for the project itself, but the turning was phenomenal. And, those newel posts are massive! Just great work Paul!

[Sean Hughto]

Just in case anyone was curious how the stool looked finished up - legs trimmed - salem red milk paint and some BLO:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2728/4201582599_290dfaef09_o.jpg

Just sort of finishing the thought of this thread. Happy Holidays!