To turn a three-leg stool, you turn a seat and three matching legs, bore three equally spaced holes in the seat at one consistent angle, fit round tenons into those holes, and dry-assemble the stool before you cut or fit any rungs. The dimensions depend on the stool’s intended use, height and user, so the examples in this guide are starting points, not standards. If your lathe cannot swing the seat, you can still cut its outline on a bandsaw and finish it with other tools.
Decide the stool’s use, height and user first
Design a three-leg stool around three things: its appearance, its intended use, and the leg length of the person who will sit on it. David W. Scott’s 1982 article on the subject frames the design this way. Before you pick a seat diameter or leg angle, decide which of these fits your project:
- Short perch for occasional seating, where a lower seat height and a smaller footprint matter more than stability for long sitting.
- Shop stool, usually a standard working height that suits a bench or machine.
- Counter-height seating, where the seat height and leg length must match a specific counter.
The published examples below use different types and sizes. Use them to see how makers set their numbers, not to copy one plan.
| Example | Source and date | Stool type | Seat | Leg boring | Rungs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| “The Three-Legged Stool,” David W. Scott | Fine Woodworking #36, September/October 1982 | Turned stool; seat from 6/4 or 8/4 stock | 12 in. to 14 in. diameter | Three radial lines at 120-degree intervals; 1-in. diameter holes about 4 in. to 5 in. from the seat center | For three rungs, heights staggered 1 in. to 1 3/4 in. apart |
| “Building a Three Legged Stool,” Highland Woodworking | Date not stated | Turned legs with footrest placement covered | Not stated | Angled drilling guide set at 14 degrees | Not stated |
| “Build a Turned Stool,” Mark Salusbury, Canadian Woodworking | Date not stated | 24-inch counter-height turned stool | 13 in. | 10 degrees of splay | Not stated |
| “Three-Legged Stool,” Rob Spiece, Woodcraft | Updated July 3, 2026 | Not stated | Not stated | Leg-layout jig; close-fitting round joinery | Not stated |
| “Boring The Holes,” Common Woodworking | Date not stated | Hand-tool tutorial | Not stated | Equal spacing with a guide; tutorial-specific 1:7 pitch | Not stated |
The sources do not state whether each splay angle is measured from vertical or from the plane of the seat. Confirm this on your own plan before you set a guide, because a 10-degree and a 14-degree figure mean different things if the reference line differs.
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Prepare the seat and lay out the three leg holes
- Turn or shape the seat blank to the diameter your plan calls for. Scott’s example uses a 12 in. to 14 in. seat cut from 6/4 or 8/4 stock.
- Find the exact center of the seat and mark it on the underside, where the leg holes will be bored.
- Mark three radial lines from the center at 120-degree intervals. Use a protractor or a template so the spacing is exact, not estimated by eye.
- Along each radial line, mark the hole location at the distance given by your chosen plan. For Scott’s example, that is about 4 in. to 5 in. from the seat center. Do not use his distance for a stool with a different seat diameter without checking that the holes still leave enough seat around them.
- Check all three marks against each other. If the spacing is unequal, correct the layout before you drill, because unequal spacing is what produces a lopsided stool.
Bore the leg holes at one consistent angle
The most important point in boring is consistency. All three holes should be bored at the same angle, which means a single guide or jig should be used for every hole rather than setting the angle separately each time.
Use a guide or jig to repeat the angle
Highland Woodworking’s project uses an angled drilling guide set at 14 degrees. Woodcraft’s project uses a leg-layout jig to position the holes. Common Woodworking’s hand-tool tutorial recommends keeping the three legs equally spaced and using a guide to bore each hole at a consistent splay, with a 1:7 pitch as its own method. Whichever approach you use, bore one hole, check it, and only then bore the other two with the same setup.
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Choose the bit to match the tenon
Highland Woodworking uses a Forstner bit to bore the leg mortises, and Scott’s design uses 1-inch holes. A 1-inch Forstner bit is a reasonable match for that design, but it is not the right bit for every stool. Match the bit diameter to the tenon diameter in the plan you are following, and check the tenon on a scrap block of the same stock before you drill the seat.
Turn the legs and fit round tenons
Turn each leg to one repeatable profile, then form a tenon on the end that matches the hole. Woodcraft points out that round mortise-and-tenon joints have less long-grain contact than flat-faced joinery, so the fit has to do more work. A snug fit is important to how long the joint lasts. Test each leg in its own hole before glue, and aim for a fit that seats by hand with light tapping rather than one that is loose or forced.
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Dry-assemble, measure and then add rungs
Scott’s order is to turn the seat first, fit the legs, and then measure the rung lengths from the assembled stool. Measuring from the drawing rather than from the fitted legs is a common cause of a rung that does not fit.
- Dry-assemble the seat and legs without glue.
- Stand the stool on a flat floor and check that all three legs touch.
- Measure each rung length between the fitted legs, not from the plan.
- If the design has three rungs, stagger their heights. Scott staggers them 1 in. to 1 3/4 in. apart so the legs are not weakened at a single height.
- Dry-assemble the full stool once more, confirm the rungs fit, and only then proceed to final glue-up.
If your lathe cannot take the seat
A lathe that cannot accommodate the seat does not end the project. Highland Woodworking suggests cutting the seat outline on a bandsaw and finishing it with other tools. The leg layout and boring steps above still apply, but the seat shaping becomes a hand-and-saw job. The sources do not provide a complete plan for building the whole stool without a lathe, so expect to do more layout checks and hand-shaping of the legs yourself.
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Troubleshooting common problems
- Legs splay unevenly: the holes were probably bored with different angles or uneven spacing. Re-check the 120-degree layout and confirm that one guide setting was used for all three holes.
- Joints feel loose: the tenon is too small for the hole. Because round joints have less long-grain contact, a loose fit gives the joint less to hold. Refit the tenon rather than adding more glue to fill the gap.
- Rungs do not fit: the rung lengths were measured from the plan rather than from the fitted legs. Measure again on the dry-assembled stool.
- Legs look weakened near the rungs: check that three rungs are staggered in height rather than set at one level.
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