Garden Throne Project
Spring 2015 ~ by Griz (aka Steve Stovner) ~
The seeds for this project were planted the first time I saw this Farm Implement Seat (still on its heavy spring steel mount) in the barn on Maggie's Farm. I brought it home, leaned it against a Mulberry tree in the shop garden and asked several family members to keep an eye out for a heavy base, with "character", I could mount it on. I was thinking maybe an antique truck wheel rim or ???.
Summer 2018
My daughter, Renee, found this old cast iron flat belt line-shaft pulley at a road side sale while driving thru Readstown Wisconsin. It has an off-set hub on one side for converting Rotational Motion into Linear Motion. Such as would be needed to drive a vertical saw mill blade. Very Cool find.
Spring 2019
The steel drive shaft stub and part of the cast iron hub extended out far enough to interfere with it laying flat on the floor. So, I cut it off.
June 2019
Hard mounting the seat spring to the thin wheel rim would surely break the brittle cast iron when someone sat in the seat. So, I used the existing pivot pin hole at the base of the spring to mount it. Mounting hardware was fashioned from old nuts and bolts I've collected over the years.
A proper chair (Throne) needs a back rest and arms. I figured rusty old leaf springs would make great backrest and arms. I collected this axle and springs from my father-in-law's woods when he passed in 1999, since then it has lived in my woods. In the 50s Dad made a 20-foot wagon (for moving logs out of the woods) from a late 1920s, early 30s truck frontend. When I found it, almost all the wood had returned to mother nature and tire rubber had rotted to the point that one tire fell off when I picked it up for transport. When I disassembled it, the remaining tire fell apart in my hands (except the bead wire). However, the inner tube still had air in it and still stands on its own.
Nuts & Bolts
Almost all the nuts and bolts I used are at least 75 years old. But I could not find quite enough 3/8-16 square nuts and 5/16-18 carriage head bolts. So, I bought new from Fastenal. The nuts came zinc coated and the bolts had black anodized finish. Neither surface would fit in with this project so I soaked the lot overnight in white vinegar, rinsed with hot water, wire brushed them bright and rounded the corners a bit on the grinder. Each time I left the shop I would mist the new hardware with 3% Hydrogen Peroxide (20% works better, but the 5 gals of 20% I bought 20 years ago is gone and that stuff is super expensive today), within days they were rusting.
Making holes in spring steel ~ by Griz (aka Steve Stovner) ~
Drilling holes in spring steel is near impossible without first annealing the metal. Instead of a true anneal process (which requires very slow cooling) I choose to reduce the hardness of the area I wanted to drill by heating with my acetylene torch to bright orange and allowing it to air cool. My hope was to keep most of the section hard, for structural integrity. This worked very well on all the pieces except one which I could not drill after several heating cycles (burned out 3 drill bits trying). On that piece I used the cutting torch to burn holes then heat again and size them with a round tapered drift punch. I made the square holes for the carriage bolts by first drilling a slightly oversized round hole, heating the hole rim (red hot) and driving in a tapered square punch (see video). I made the square punch by grinding down 2 sides of a cold chisel to the same taper as the original sloped sides.
Bending spring steel ~ by Griz (aka Steve Stovner) ~
Sharp angle (approx. 90 degree) bends were made by clamping the piece in my big vice, heating with acetylene torch until cherry red along desired bend line and pulling piece over by hand to desired bend angle. To make larger radius bends at the base of the seat arm supports I split a short section of pipe in half and welded it to a large angle iron. By slowly moving the "Cherry Red Line" up the piece as I pulled it around the form, I was able to make a fairly smooth (but not perfect) 2-1/2" radius corner.
Rocking Chair Spring
The original tractor seat spring was fully function, but I mounted it on pivot at the base. My son-in-law got me an old motorcycle shock that was in "character". My plan was to mount it at the angle required for shock spring to be slightly compressed with 200 lb. person in seat. My calculations after measuring spring compression force and a single confirmation trial showed that the angle required was almost horizontal, which I did not like. The angle I choose looks right and supports the back of the original seat spring which works well. I made brackets and extension to mount shock.
Plant Pot Hangers
Recess rivet nuts, shop treaded rod, welded wire frame and links of old tire chain support 6 plant pots.
Construction
Done
