I was lucky enough to hang with some pals at the Steeprock Joinery in Sawpit, Colorado in the summer of 2019, late August. The shop was built as a launching point for a collective of custom house builders in the Telluride area, and operated as a productive space until the founder passed a handful of years ago.

I ended up here visiting a friend during his time renting the space, and wanted to wake the shop up. My fixation on tripods returned, and I thought I would try my hand at a milking stool: typically these are stout, sturdy, informal tripods for, well… milking. As I understand these are something of a touchstone for furniture designers, as they represent a minimum viable piece: a reduction of practice. This one was three afternoons in the shop, and, low and behold, no CNC equipment was used.

We laminated an old rough-sawn board into a two-ply ~ 3” slab, dressed on a wonderful jointer in the shop. To fit legs, we dressed stock from the same slab into square sections, and rounded these at one end using a monstrous router brought back to life. To put some splay in the legs, we informally jigged up a small drill press with some multispur bits of the same diameter as the routed / rounded ends.

Leg-ends were slit on the bandsaw and a few wedges ripped on the tablesaw. I’m not sure what this type of joint is called, but I know it has a name. We laid up a small brace midway from the seat, simply but-jointed against the legs. Angles cut just dialing in the tablesaw lean.

I had forgotten how sensitive glue-ups can be. In hindsight, would glue up the post-in-seat connection last, as the rotational degree of freedom was pretty critical for the leg fitup.

Turned out pretty well, I’m satisfied.