The Steel Guitar Forum

I have a several decade old pack a seat which I love, and have refurbed latches and handle , reupholstered/replaced cushion foam etc over the years. It is just the right height, or was until one of the tubular aluminum legs bent and developed a stress fracture from decades of abuse, and broke entirely when I tried to bend it back to shape.
I am not in the market for a new seat, I just want to fix this one.
The tubes are 1 inch outer diameter, bent into a flattened "U" to form the legs.
Doing some online research I find different grades and tensile strength tubing, some listed as structural...
And the local big box hardware emporium supposedly has 1" tubing listed as 16 gauge.

So what is the standard material used for packaseat manufacture?
Can I get away with a length of hardware store 1" or have to order aircraft structural grade 6061-T6?

Dave,

There are different sizes that are used depending on who the manufacturer may be of a particular paK-A-seat. If your seat legs were 1", I would use ridgid aluminum conduit. If the 90 degree bends are done correctly, there will be no flat spots in the radius of the bend. Lowes and Home Depot carry 1" ridgid conduit in 10' lengths. What is the width of your existing legs (from outside of one leg to the opposite leg)? I have a set of legs off an old Sho-Bud pak-a-seat in case you run into any problems. Better yet, if you have an electrician friend, it would be very easy to bend a piece of 1" knowing the distance from outside of one leg to the other. The legs could be left a little long and the excess cut off with a pipe cutter. Flat hole plugs could be inserted in the legs ends, once they are cut to length. I should add that 3/4" ridgid could be used if you replace both sets of legs to match. I hope this helps you.

I've built some seats (about a dozen) when I lived in KC. Trying to find the correct aluminum was a problem and the only place I could find it, I would have had to buy a minimum amount that was over $200. In addition, I only found one place that had the equipment and dies to properly bend the aluminum and that place wouldn't do it unless I made a minimum order (again a high $$ amount).

I wound up using 3/4" conduit. The guitar player I was working with had a friend that was the welding shop foreman at a plant that made food processing equipment. He got him to fabricate the legs for me. He also made the leg braces for me.

Ray, what's the OD on the Sho~Bud legs you have? the measurement outside to outside on my remaining leg is 12"

the brace is also tubing, looks like 3/4 inch.

seems like my biggest issue is bending it without crimping if I go with the hardware store tubing....

When trying to bend any kind of tubing, a trick to keep it from collapsing is to fill the tubing with sand before you bend it. Put a plug in one end, fill the tube with sand, and plug the other end before bending. When the bend is done, dump out the sand (obviously).

Dave, you need to find someone that does hydraulic tubing installation. They have the correct tools to make a tight, even bend in metal tubing. The benders that are used by electricians won't make a sharp enough bend. And there is probably no way to bend it yourself without the right tools. When I worked, I was pipefitter, we did quite a bit of tube bending, the smaller sizes can be bent with hand benders, but to bend anything over 1/2" you need to use heavier tools. Maybe it's possible to buy some legs from one of the current seat builders?

Thank you all for your replies!
I will be exploring the possibility of getting a replacement leg assembly from one of the fine manufacturers of moden steel seating. I realize they want to sell new units and not help rebuild an unknown mfgr's ancient box, but it won't hurt to ask.

Then again it may be time to bite the bullet, modernize and go for a new seat with bells and whistles... it is appealing.

I bought a set of legs from a forum member a while back, but they wouldn't work with my seat. I'll try to get pictures and measurements for you to see if they will work for you.

Dave,
As an afterthought, 3/4" ridgid aluminum conduit is nominally 1" in diameter. If your existing legs are 1" in diameter, you actually have 3/4" pipe. The legs I have from my old pak-a-seat are 12.5" from outside of one leg to another. They also have the bracing rods with them. On the old Sho-Bud seats one set of legs are 1" shorter so when they are folded down, they overlap one another. Most seats are made that way. I could sell them to you if you need them, and if they would work for you.

I noticed the guy at a local muffler shop stocks alot of tubing, and can bend it on his machine in a heartbeat.
I bet he could duplicate the old set of legs.