Refurbished folding lawn chair with repurposed materials

It's just an hour away from the close of a contest on Instructables.  That means I'm cramming like a freshman student to try and get my project done.  Strangely, that's the first and only introduction that i planned on writing for this project. 

I really should take this more seriously.

But I do.  For years I have been intermittently collecting seat belt webbing with the intent of making a folding lawn chair a bit more permanent.  And this project finally got me to dig them out and mash them up with the belts, webbing, and a few found objects to make the best folding lawn chair this side of the other side of my house.

Step 1: Tools and materials

• Drill and bits
• Scissors or utility knife
• Hole punches
• Pop rivet gun and rivets
• An old folding aluminum lawn chair
• Belts, seat belts, straps, dog collars...
• Awl
• Marker
• Tape measure

Comments

[Ricardo Furioso]

Love it.
Great reuse.
Great thought/suggestion/rule about keeping your eyes open when biking.
But the most important part of this Instructable is your way of seeing new, useful uses that you can give the things that thousands of other people pass by.
Thank you for a fine piece of work.

[tulekah]

i've no seatbelts but yards and yards of 4" truck straps. i was going to cut up some steel folding lawn chairs for rafter hooks but i've got to try this first! thanks for imagination!

[zieak]

Thanks! Post pictures here if you do it!

[tulekah]

i'm sort of glad it's been a hard winter here. it took me a while to remember why i was going to cut up the chair frames into rafter hooks. when the chairs were still strung they killed my back! one thing with old truck straps, they're strong enough to grommet and lace underneath the chair, saves material and makes them adjustable.

[KoolAidDisaster]

This should have won... it's awesome

[zieak]

Thank you!

[mary candy]

very cool!

[zieak]

Thank you!

[mole1]

That looks great! Just what my old beach chairs need!
Why rivets instead of screws?

[zieak]

I wanted to prevent oxidation so wanted to use the same material as the frame of the chair. I could have used short screws though. ...and thank you!

[Dr.Bill]

A chair like that was made into a 6 meter transmitting antenna and featured in QST magazine as the "Squallo".

Shore do wish I could Find some of these old chairs.

[zieak]

I'm going to have to look that up!

[Calorie]

I like it. Unfortunately I cannot find the old fold up frames (new or used.) They only sell the frames already extended. You stack them up for transport. If you want a folding type, you have to get those hideous cloth ones that hurt your back.

I wanted to say that you did a great job. I remember my Mom re-webbing ours when we were kids. We bought the webbing at TG&Y. Stuff was too expensive to throw away then.

[zieak]

Yeah, I think many people discarded them long ago. It sure is sad!

Thank you!

[Treasure Tabby]

Great idea!
Much more stronger then those replacement plastic strips. Got a bunch of old rotted out chairs like that hanging out in the garage.

Now to find a source of those discarded seatbelts.

[zieak]

I have the opposite problem - not enough of the old lawn chair frames! But you can bet i'll be collecting them for the rest of my life now. As well as cutting out the seatbelts from every junk car that passes in front of me.

[rendermatt]

Great instructable, chair looks pretty good for being repurposed! Its a shame that people throw out these chairs when the frame is still good. At the very least people could use the metal for other things

[zieak]

I agree. Fortunately we're allowed to salvage from the metal and wood piles here and at least the person discarding it put it in that pile instead of the pile of stuff to be baled up and shipped to a landfill. I actually found another of these chairs the day that I finished this one! Fortunately I still had lots of material to work with so now have a second chair. (Although it doesn't match exactly.)

Oh, and thank you!

[rendermatt]

No problem, are you salvaging from a collection facility place or what?

[zieak]

Sort of. The town's waste is baled up and shipped by barge to Seattle. But metal, wood, glass and recyclables can be separated. The wood is burned weekly. The metal and cars are picked up by a recycler about once a year. For $5 for a day or $50 for the year you can salvage through the wood, metal, and cars. Sometimes it is awesome. Sometimes a letdown. Rarely is it not worth $5!

[rendermatt]

thats awesome!

[patricianorma]

Perfect chair for my garden! :)

[CrLz]

Cool chair, its got some nice flavor!

[zieak]

Thank you!