Shop tip - Care for the butt

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Knifemaker
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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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When I started making knives my FIL gave me this old office chair made out of plywood. The plywood was too hard on my butt, so I glued on my leftover foam from making my kydex press. Ugly, but it worked. Unfortunately, these days its getting kinda worn out and wobbly, so I started looking for a shop stool. The mechanic next door showed me the snap on stools they use in his catalog, but whoa those things cost hundreds of dollars. So, I bought a craftsman stool for $50. The casters immediately, in less than a week lost their bearings. POS. Back to the drawing board. A few weeks later while searching for an old steelcase desk I found old Pedigo dental exam stool at a flea market for $50. Game changer. Medical exam stools are perfect for the shop. They are sturdy, have real heavy duty casters made years ago when they made stuff right, picky shoppers can get them for around $50, and best of all, they are padded for butt comfort and winter warmth! Everything on mine is welded metal except the seat! I've now bought 5 of them for the shop and not paid more than $65 for one. The brands I've liked best are Pedigo, Midmark or Brewer. Avoid the $200 offers and expensive metro-refurbed ones on flea bay. Stick to the $50 ish ones. Be more picky about real wheel casters not the modern looking office chair plastic wheels and less picky about the upolstery. They make them nowadays too. I didn't try those and won't disparage them but assume the mid century ones are made better. So far my impressions of the brands are Pedigo and brewer are the stoutest and have a screw lift rather than an air lift. Nothing to break on them. The Midmark has a much larger seat and is so soft and comfy on my butt that its my favorite even though the casters are the modern kind.

Take care of your butts. :cool:
 
For a stool I use a drum throne. No casters but height adjustable, swivels, and very comfy. But, I have been playing drums for 25 years.... so of course it's comfortable to me. Mine has a back, which is a plus (they usually don't,) and the Ludwig session geared stuff is very very sturdy. And they can be found pretty cheap. But I will have to look at the exam stools... that's a great find. Wheels would be great. I have a shop stool with wheels that isn't padded that I use when working lower down on a vehicle... You are dead on though, poor seating choices can screw up your back...

I know the Snap-On price tag may be shocking the first time you see it. .The first time you use ANYTHING in their product line you will know why.

-Eric
 
Andy -

I'm on the hunt for butt-ache relief as well. I have a 60 yr old wooden stool with a back. It wobbles and squeaks, and every stretcher, slat, rail and leg joint has been epoxied or JB Welded in place several times. The thin foam seat pad has long lost its cushioning, and the height is just a bit off for my new bench. I've wanted to build a suitable frame for a 110 yr old tractor iron seat from the farm(and then pad it), but that's a while off.




Thank you for the tip. I'll be on the look out for your stool brands.

-Peter
 
Drummer seats. Hadn't thought of that, but I require wheels. I sit and shape the handles on the stool and have to move around the grinder freely.
 
Wish i had a good chair in my shop. Standing for 8-10 hours in the cold is hard on the body. But since I switched to shaping handles with scalloped J flex belts I don't really have any work I can do sitting down anymore. Off topic but If any of you guys haven't tried scalloped J flex belts for handle shaping give them a shot. I do 98% of my shaping with them. Its a massive time saver Vs. filing and hand sanding. Plus the belts are cheap and last forever on micarta and wood.
 
Andy- Awesome post--- Thank you my friend!!! :thumbup: :cool:

I had never thought of this, but it sure makes sense now that you have brought it to our attention. :)

I've got a couple quality stool/chairs, but they are not mobile... and I've been grumbling about that for a long time. I will definitely be using your advice and doing some new searching now! :)


On this subject, have you (or anyone reading this) ever used a "sit and stand" unit? I have always thought they would be great for some of the stuff at the finishing bench, and maybe even grinding. A friend gave us a Bowflex (we already have a very well equipped free-weight gym in the house) and I have been trying to figure out how to frankenstein it into a sit-and-stand stool/rest.

Here's a factory made unit---

lyonsitstanduse.jpg


Thank you for taking the time to share this Andy, it is very much appreciated!!! :)
 
Forget about the sit and stand, I want that machine!:eek:

That does look kinda useful. I have a couple of well padded roll-around chairs that I was lucky enough to score for free- they make detail work easier for sure. Now if I would just improve my posture perhaps age could finally make me good looking...
 
Almost everything I do is in a sitting position. I have used 'secretary chairs' that I have gotten at flea markets or C/L. They are cheap and you can test them before you buy them. Height adjustable and the good ones have a back support adjustment. Support at the bottom of the back and having your thighs parallel to the floor will go a long way for comfort during long work sessions.
 
Tx Bass Tech said:
A little Gold Bond Powder in yer shorts helps the butt feel better on those swampy days.
Click to expand...

Cornstarch


NickWheeler said:
Andy- Awesome post--- Thank you my friend!!!

I had never thought of this, but it sure makes sense now that you have brought it to our attention. :)

I've got a couple quality stool/chairs, but they are not mobile... and I've been grumbling about that for a long time. I will definitely be using your advice and doing some new searching now! :)


On this subject, have you (or anyone reading this) ever used a "sit and stand" unit? I have always thought they would be great for some of the stuff at the finishing bench, and maybe even grinding. A friend gave us a Bowflex (we already have a very well equipped free-weight gym in the house) and I have been trying to figure out how to frankenstein it into a sit-and-stand stool/rest.

Here's a factory made unit---

View attachment 423177


Thank you for taking the time to share this Andy, it is very much appreciated!!! :)
Click to expand...


$500 chairs make you want to make something yourself.

I tried searching on "sit and stand" and all I get is some baby strollers


"Sit Stand Stools"
worked better

Especially on image search, there are lots of them.


At one of my past jobs, we had very high stools made to fit a standing height workbench.

If you were sitting at them, your feet wouldn't touch the ground.
You had to have a raised foot stool or you lose circulation and it's not comfortable

They had a tendancy to topple over sometimes and that was on a perfect smooth linoleum floor.

a concrete shop floor with a bit of trash, or maybe some chips would be worse as those little casters would jam up easily on the slightest thing.


I took one of the old chairs home and created an extension on the hydraulic seat tube
it had the same problems and if I worked on something like filing or hand sanding, I lost power in the back and forth rolling motion of the casters.
I toppled it over many times.

I stopped using that chair

I realized
I want my feet on the floor
I want a triangle ish shaped seat that lets my legs down to hit the floor
The saddle seats look interesting
http://www.shop.straight-connection.de/bilder/produkte/gross/Stehhilfe-SIT-UP-MINI-von-Rebotec.jpg
(a harley softail seat is actually a nice shape and they sell upgraded gell filled ones and such.)

http://www.revzilla.com/product_ima...deluxe_seat_for_harley_softail0613_detail.jpg
Having my feet on the floor would let me have casters, but I want large diameter and wide rubber wheels



That sort of thing looksright, I guess it's a universal problem.

I like the way some of them are tilted back on an angle, helping the center of gravity and tipping problem.
sit_stand_stool_1_1.jpg



A makehift that i do use now on the low bench
two milk crates stacked upsidedown and wired together, with a bit of plywood and some of that thick kneeling pad neoprene (kydex press) foam on the top
no guilt about kicking that around and it's the right height for where I use it.
 
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Luckily I live in Las Vegas and went and bought some slot machine chairs. Their designed to allow a person to sit for hours if not days without realizing the time. Really great on the back. They usually sell here for 50 to 100 dollars where as new they can cost up to 1000.00.
 
The best seat in my possession is on my motorcycle. Seriously, I don't know why they don't make more chairs like them.

I hear you about price. One time at work, I needed a new office chair and the supply gal dropped a catalog on my desk. Every chair was $300 on up to executive chairs going well past 1k. I now stand on concrete 13 hours a day. Don't even have a chair, but then I've also had a few spinal surgeries so I don't recommend it.

As far as shop work, I have everything (mostly) set up for standing height. I don't usually stay in one spot long enough to sit, but I'm also not putting in hour after hour like a lot of you guys.
 
Peter- that tractor seat is frick'n cool!

Sam- You're right, sorry about that. You will get more results with "sit stand stool." I got the image above with the "&" thrown in, but it's not supposed to be included. Your milk crate stool description sounds like the beginning of a "You might be a redneck if..." joke. :p ;) But hey, if it works...! :)

I've seen the sit-stand stools advertised in some of the mail flyers I get (Enco, MSC, Travers) for somewhere around $250-300... :eek: Yea, that's super sale price... So building one is much more likely to happen for me. For that kind of money I'd rather buy another VFD or something cool.


Salem- you and me both buddy! :D It damn near looks like that machine was restored just for the photo... a 60's-70's era machine that looks almost brand new. :cool:

Jimmy- a casino chair sounds like a great idea. Like you said, they HAVE to be comfortable to keep people sitting in them for hours on end.... very slick. :)
 
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That sit stand stool thing looks like it might work for grinding. I can get my beer belly right up against the grinder in that thing.
 
After trying chairs, stools, buckets, drum thrones, and DIY hybrids, I finally found something that was completely adjustable, balanced, allowed me more freedom of movement, greater reach and much more versatility in the shop. This whole time, I'd been looking on the net, hardware stores, office supply and scouring yard sales I completely overlooked the obvious. I was practically standing on top of the answer. IMO, the best engineered product I found to keep my butt of the ground without breaking the bank was...... my legs.;)


Seriously... appropriate bench heights, step stools, anti-fatigue matting, and breaking a few bad(ergonomic) habits did wonders for my back and productivity. I was forced to reassess EVERYTHING after an injury in 2012 put me out of commission for several months. For me at least, chairs were not the solution.
 
I think Rick can't resist spinning around on stools and office chairs. He had to get them out of the shop so he could concentrate. I see him doing the weeeeee weeeeee noise like that pig in the commercial getting a ride home.
 
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