Folding leg ideas?

Messages
194
Location
Atlanta, GA
I need to make a small stool, roughly 30" long by 11" wide and 15" high. It has to be portable, so I was thinking along the lines of some kind of folding legs. It'd be nice if the legs could lock up in the folded position and down in the > 90 degree position so that it's nice and stable. Anyone have any ideas for something like that? Most of the locking hinges I've seen are 90 degrees and they don't really lock that well. Maybe just a hinge for the foot and some sort of sliding thing to interfere with it's closing.
 
Charlie i thought i had seen a hinge over on the hardware at Lee Valley that would do what you want. But could not find it.

Anyhow why not split the two tasks.

1) Leg retainer for folded legs

Use the magets and a metal disc to hold them folded position like a cuppboard door. If you use the metal cup type of rare earth magnets and a forstner bit you could conceal them by sinking them into the bottom of the bench seat.

2) Leg hinge could be all sorts even a dowel through the legs with two trunnions on either end allowing the leg to pivot.

Its the keeping it open i would be more concerned with. Somehow you need a stretcher in the middle.

Do a sketch of what you looking for and ask for input.
 
Well Glenn, I looked at LV and Woodcraft and didn't see anything like those- they look pretty good, thanks.

Rob, great idea on the magnets to keep the legs up. Still pondering a shop-made solution for locking down.
 
had you thought of 3 legs and have only one need to be locked or pinned with a clasp pin.the seat could be permanently anchored and just fold down with the legs pivoting on a center axle.
 
You could fix the three legs to the seat with hinges and then have a triangular piece of 1/3" of plywood with selicirlular recesses on each vertex. One leg would have a metal rod going throug it and fix it to one of that reces to behave like a hinge. then you would unfold the seat and log the legs by unfolding the triangle to horizontal so that the other two legs fit on the recesses of the vertex, actian as if it was a stretcher.

I hope to have conveyed the idea properly, if not I can make you a sketch.
 
how about a fold down stretcher as well? have the legs drop left and right and the stretcher drop front to back then index into a stop? you could use regular hinges at that point and if you stagger them correctly only need one release that when activated the legs drop and the stretcher swings into place
 
Thanks for the ideas guys. Larry, I like the 3-leg idea, I think that should be stable enough. Toni/Rich- good ideas on the stretchers. I'll try and sketch up a couple things.
 
The results (no finish applied yet). The last picture shows its end purpose.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0908.JPG
    IMG_0908.JPG
    30.7 KB · Views: 14
  • IMG_0909.JPG
    IMG_0909.JPG
    49.1 KB · Views: 14
  • IMG_0910.JPG
    IMG_0910.JPG
    65.3 KB · Views: 14
  • IMG_0911.JPG
    IMG_0911.JPG
    66.4 KB · Views: 13
  • IMG_0912.JPG
    IMG_0912.JPG
    63.8 KB · Views: 15
well one thing is for sure you built it sturdy enough for me to set there and strum the strings but you wouldnt want to listen to the sounds i made:)

Definitely not if it would sound like your monkey drum beating impersonation.;):rofl::rofl: But who knows maybe it would be better with them gentle fingers of yours.:D


Nice bench charlie excellent idea and i think you just solved a problem for me with my deck access panel.:thumb::thumb:

Do you have a build thread on the harp somewhere on teh forum ?
 
Thanks for the compliments everyone. As for the harp, no, I did not do a build thread on it. I really should take in-progress shots of my projects, but somehow never get around to it.
 
Top