Project #3 from DVA: Stool for changing brakes

[DVA]

I am getting tired of sitting on the ground or squatting when changing brakes or rotating the tires on my vehicles.

I got the idea for the stool of the Miller welding forums for a cool stool.

Materials consist of 1” 16 gage square tubing, four 4 inch 11 gage gussets and more materials to come.

The lower portion of the stool measures 16” wide x18” long. The seat is 9”X16” and the angles were cut to allow the seat to make a stool 11” tall. The pieces were all cut on my Rage dry cut saw at a 45° angle and welded to have no open ends on the tubing. Accessible welds were ground flat with a flapper wheel for looks.

I am still debating on either using expanded metal on the seat or using Stainless Steel sheet that will be riveted on the seat. The bottom of the stool will receive a stainless steel sheet and will be fastened by rivets and will provide a good storage location for parts when working around the house.

Wheels will be added to the stool to provide mobility. I plan on dropping the frame off at the powder coaters at the end of the month.

I have also included some pictures of the welds that were not accessible to the flapper wheel.

Current time to fabricate: Cutting steel ~0.5 hr, welding and fit up ~0.75 hr, current grinding and sanding ~0.5 hr. I have about 1.5 hours of work left to finish the project. Total build time estimate when finished 3.25 hr.

Cost to fabricate: Tubing 12 feet of tubing (scrap from another project), 4 gussets $4.00, expanded metal (scrap from another project), stainless steel sheet (estimate $25.00 from Industrial Metal Supply scrap section and about $5 to have a shop make a few cuts on their sheer), wheels will cost about $25-35 dollars and powder coating will cost about 35.00. Total estimated cost for stool is about $94-104 dollars.