Feet replacement for tubular chairs

Letter 12079

Feet replacement for tubular chairs

I am redoing a tubular wrought iron table and chair set and am having a hard time finding replacement feet with the nylon feet on them. The tubes are 5/8 and the collars are 11/2 to 2 inches tall. As the legs go up to the seat the legs get thicker, and the feet you buy in the stores are only 5/8 tall. I have looked everywhere in the area I live but can not find anything that will work. Can you help?

Thanks,

Mike Hall
- Suffield, Ohio, USA

Hi Mike,

If you can't buy off-the-shelf 'feet' (as you call them), you have two options.

l. Get them made. Expensive....
2. You said that the collar size was 5/8" dia. OK, here's a idea.

Go to a local thermoplastic fabricator (not a supply house) because they will always have offcuts.

Then consider using the properties of most thermoplastics which is that if available in an extruded form, if they were heated up a little, a pipe, for instance, could be easily slightly expanded (piece of wood, for example) to a larger diameter.

Then if you reheat, that pipe will revert to its original diameter (or slightly less)

Hence for an O.D. of around 5/8" min, I'd ask if they had any scrap pieces of 3/8" PVC, Schedule 40 or Sch. 80. The exact size of that piping is 0.675" OD x 0.091 wall alt. 0.126" dia wall for Sch. 80. (use Sch. 80 if you can get it)

If you heat expanded that piping and pushed it over the iron legs (cleaned but NOT oiled) and reheated it, you'd never get it off. Tremendous compressive strength ... If you are a handy man and have some 'dies' you could easily tap a threaded hole at the bottom and get some type of store leg to fit. OK?

Why PVC and not nylon? Well, it's easily available. It's not as strong but it would be easier to work with.

Hope it helps. If so, advise s.v.p.

Freeman Newton
- White Rock, B.C. Canada

--- retired, somewhat, after mega years in plastic fabrication

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