The Steel Guitar Forum

Many years ago I built my own custom steel seat. I still really like it & it's the most comfortable I've ever sat on. BUT... I think what I did for legs was saw off some card table legs. They're pretty funky & bent. Anyone know where I could find a set of those nice fold down legs?

I built one years ago also. I used 3/4" dia copper pipe with 3/4" copper elbows. Sweat them together. I fabricated fold down legs with braces. legs folded into base of case. Used 3/4" conduit clamps to hold leg assmb to stool.

You might find a muffler shop that has smaller dies for the tube benders and make them up. Maybe a Conduit bender tool would work as well. Once you do a set they would be easy to reproduce and sell to folks needing them here on the Forum as well. Win for everyine

I'm sure one of the seat makers would sell you a set if you ask.

You can buy the small size conduit at Home Depot, and they have the benders/dies in the store. You can bend it yourself or have an employee do it for you.

Some one in the steel guitar builders forum might know.

Crafting the legs is only one part of the operation. For folding legs, you have to brace them to be sturdy and stay open when set up and those have to be the correct length and all.

Crafting or bending those braces might be more difficult than bending the legs.

Unless you have the tools and expertise to design all this, it might be wise to figure your seat width size and buy the leg/brace assemblies already made from one of the seat builders per Erv's suggestion.

I kind of like Kevin's 3/4" copper tubing method with the copper elbows and conduit clamps. I don't really understand how you brace them though. I suppose one could run a couple of steel straps parallel with screws & butterfly nuts. I've already got all that stuff & have sweated plenty of copper joints and they don't leak.

The electrical conduit benders do not have a sharp enough curve. I built about two dozen seats back in late 80's/early 90's. I only found one place in the Kansas City area that had a die that could bend them properly but they wouldn't do it unless I had a large (100) order so that was out. I had a friend that was the welding dept supervisor in a commercial (stainless steel) food processing equipment plant. I had him make legs from 3/4" conduit, welded at 90 degree angles. I made leg braces from stainless steel rod. Several of my seats (ones I know about) are still around.

Funny Jack, I never thought of welding up legs and I spent a few years as a fabrication welder! I started this thread thinking I'd just order a set of legs for my old seat. Now I think I'll make a really nice sturdy set.

Here are some fold-down legs
https://www.google.com/search?q=fold+do ... 20&bih=960

Charlie, put 250 wiggling pounds on any of those for 4 hours, and see how they hold up.
or maybe they will.

Fred, I have a good seat, I was just answering the original question. Trying to help out.

Charley, I was simply trying to add a little humor to the mix, no harm intended.

I built one that the legs didn't fold. I bought a "walker" at Goodwill and used the legs (cut down) from that.