Action shot 1

Finished glamour shot first.  This is a staked poop stool in Chris Schwarz staked leg furniture fashion a la "Anarchist's Design Book"

Action Shot 2

Stock came from half a log (some kind of maple?) I found on the side of the road in my neighborhood.  This contest saved it from the firepit.  Some of this is bandsawn.

Used jack plane to further flatten a face so I could mill on the tablesaw.

An example of milling on the tablesaw.  Probably the most dangerous part of the process.  Not exactly square faces.

Some milled blanks.  Probably for the legs.

Gluing up the platform.  Notice the big chunks missing.  This is the bottom face.  

Using the tablesaw to make sliding dovetails (a first for me) for the aprons.

Trying to make the sliding dovetails work for the aprons.

Still trying to make them work.

Glued them on just one end to account for wood movement.  The fit sucked so I ended up gluing them along the entire length.

My stack of offcuts is getting larger than my final project.

World's *ahem* crappiest sliding dovetails.  Large chamfer on the bottom face to make the platform look visually lighter.

Gap

Another gap.  Missing a photo here of me drilling holes.  I just used my 3/4 auger bit and another simple drill jig to make the holes.  Just drill through the long axis of a piece of wood then cut it at the angle you want to drill.  Screw this block to a plank that you can clamp to your platform and drill baby drill.

You can see the "sawtooth" profile left behind from multiple passes on the tablesaw.

Starting the octagonal legs here with a jack plane and a simple jig.

I 3D printed some guides to help me make tapered octagonal staked legs for other projects.  They came in handy to mark the octagons.  Notice the angled face at the bottom.  I use this to set up my saw to cut the end of the leg to mate flush (ahem) with the bottom of the platform.  This will make sense later.

Larger octagon.

Leaves a neat and centered octagon.

Weird center-drilling jig.  PVC pipe and 3D printed holders.  I use it with a 3/4 Woodowl auger.  Mostly works.  

Holder for my weird center-drilling jig I made a while ago.

Drill bushing cap that fits in the end of the jig.

3/4 dowel is mostly aligned along the axis.

Using the jack plane to taper the legs.  I just plane down the lines on the end faces.  If it looks fair, is fair.

Realized that I need to also make the freaking dowels that I use for the legs because of the rules of the contest.  Luckily I have another crappy jig.

Another crappy jig.

In use.

I mounted a router with a bowl and tray bit to simulate a lathe.  The stock is centered in a 3D printed holder and PVC pipe which is rotated by hand over the bit.  Again, it mostly works.

Detail shot of the holder geometry.  It's a little forgiving of the stock size (3/4).  Don't be fooled by the finish here, it's actually worse but functional.

Chamfering some edges to make it fancy.  Also notice that I went ahead and made some smaller dowels and pinned the aprons in place.  You may say "Wah wah wah What about wood movement? Hmmmmmm?" and I may say "Screw you, it's a poop stool."

Dry fitted legs

Legs are glued here?

Leveling with the pencil on block method.

Dozuki's are fun.  Just got one.

Chamfered feet so it won't split when you drag/kick it across the bathroom floor.

Doesn't wobble but needs finishing.  You can see here I used a chamfering bit in the router for the edge of the cutout.

Glamour shot by the window with morning light.  Finished with tung oil and paste wax.  I'm not great at finishing and don't have the patience for multiple coats.

Shot from underneath starring Bubba.  Notice how the legs go right up to the underside of the platform.  I kinda like the look and it almost hides the fact that I'm using dowels instead of tenoning the end of the legs.

Underneath again.  You might see from defects in these shots of tearout and chunks missing due to this being firewood previously.  Also, I could have paid a little more attention to matching grain pattern/orientation/color here and there.  Also also, I wish I had pushed the legs further out toward the edges.  But I didn't sweat it since this was going to be a freaking stool that I put my feet on to help me push out stools into the toilet.