Bench -- Basically Finished

Replaced the 2" bolts with 2.5" ones.

Also got some large (1.5") fender washers to better distribute the load on the wood.  They're not really visible when flipped the right side up so the fact that they are slightly over the edge of the leg is not an issue...

Put some self adhesive felt feet on the legs.

Was thinking about putting a screw into each of the felt pads but decided not to, at least for now.

Don't want the screw heads to eventually become exposed from felt compression and have a chance to scratch the floor...

If they ever move or fall off, a better solution can easily be applied.

Pretty much done.

Will put another coat of wood wax on the bench.

Then it's done.

 

Saturday, April 10, 2021 -- Dockweiler Beach Parking Lot - VWs

 

Standup Desks for Elementary School Kids

CM is substitute teaching a 5th grade class for the rest of the school year.

These "standup" desks have fold down legs that allow the kids to work at their desks while standing.

A lot of them are broken so she brought them home for repair.

This is the worst one, where the screws for the legs tore out of the particle board.

Making a patch to go over the torn out areas.

The whole "desk" is now 1/2" taller but fixed.

Added felt pads to the plastic feet on all the desks to keep them from sliding too easily (the plastic feet are slippery).

The plastic feet are held in place with just one screw towards one end of the feet.  Very poor design.  80% of the feet are hanging there with no support so is easily deflected.  When the plastic part deflects the effect is to basically loosen the one screw.

So nearly all the feet are loose, missing or damaged.  

This one is loose and broken.

A majority of the screws has been over torqued and the metal tubing that they thread into have been "stripped" (enlarged) so that the screws no longer hold torque.

There's a slotted hole built into the plastic feet on the curved end.

It's pretty obvious that when someone designed the plastic feet, he/she intended to another fastener to be located in the curved area.

But, because of the way the metal tubing is bent to conform to the curve, any screw would protrude through the tubing.

Perhaps they didn't want to deal with the challenge of fastening through the curved area but someone decided to skip the second fastener...  Bad decision...

For this one, I drilled a hole through the slit and installed a small screw.

The screw tip protruded through.

Using a rasp bit on the drill, shaved down and rounded the screw tip so that it's not sharp.  Will put a piece of white duct tape over it also.

Used a larger screw in this case to secure the foot.

The way the legs fold, there's not enough space for the felt pads to be added to the feet when they're folded down.

The felt interferes due to the legs being mounted too close together.

In order to make space for the felt pads, the legs were moved to make space.

This picture is after moving the leg mounting points.  The black line is where the mounting pad was before moving...

Now there's enough space for the felt pads when the legs are folded.