Introduction: DIY Shock Absorber Stool

About: Being a science student i love to indulge in projects related to engineering as i love to learn things practically...

This project is totally inspired by the project so all the the applause goes to the man behind the idea.

Well as I just got through that awesome idea about making a unique creative stool out of an old shock absorber, I just wanted it so badly and the only way to get that is to built one for myself.

So I just brought an old car shock absorber from the scrapyard near to my workshop. Now to keep the whole idea more authentic I Brought a complete car shock assemble with the disc brake and the shock pads. This proved to be a good idea as later the disc brake assembly helped us to keep the C.G of the stool low and acted as a foot rest also.

Now lets get our hands dirty....

Step 1: Disassembly

To start with we disassembled the whole jump and the first thing to get off is the highly compressed spring. Its a substantially large shock and the spring have a good amount of potential that can harm anyone easily. There is a nut on top of the spring cap that allows you to take off the spring. I would highly recommend using a decompressing tool to safely remove the spring and while removing that nut just make sure you keep your body out of the that axis.

As you get the spring off the next thing is to loosen all the springs that you find there. Once we get all the parts its time to get them cleaned.

Step 2: Removing Debris and Degreasing

Now the shock absorber I have brought seems to be in a good working condition but believe me its damn dirty and greasy. So to clean all the parts what we are going to do is to first remove all the dirt and debris using a metal wire brush.

It took a lot of efforts to get that brushing stage through all those parts. Luckily as all the parts were covered with so much dirt and grease so it prevented the surface to develop rust.

All the parts were than washed using gasoline to remove the grease and oil from the surface of the parts.

Step 3: Sandblasting the Parts

Even after washing all the parts using gasoline they seems to be very dirty and I was certain that If we go with the paint job now we won't be able to get a good finish.

So we went a step further and get all the parts sandblasted and the results were just too satisfying. Now all the parts are properly cleaned and the surface is ready to get painted.

Step 4: Painting the Parts

Now all the parts are then painted using spray paints. I have use a matt black finish on the main body and the glossy red and yellow on all other parts.

The paint job did produced great results and I was extremely satisfied by how good we managed to get all these parts after a lot of hardwork.

Step 5: Stool Stand

The stand of the stool is made using 5mm which metal sheet. The base is cut down in a triangular shape and to which we have added three legs measuring nearly 6 inches in length. We have drilled a pair of holes which will help us to mount the base to the bottom of the jump.

As we get all the parts welded together we spray painted them in matt black and now the stand is ready to get attached to the base of the jump.

Step 6: Assembling the Parts

Next all the parts were assembled together. First we mounted the stand to the base which helped us to get through the remaining parts easily. Next the disc brake assembly is mounted.

Now to decompress the spring and to give the stool a bit of travel when someone sit over that we just cut down the spring using a angle grinder before we painted that. So next we mounted the spring in place.

Step 7: Mounting the Top Plate

The top plate that came with this shock was in pretty bad shape so we brought a new one. This plate allows us to make the top rotatable. So we drilled three holes and threaded them so that wee can mount the stool top over this plate.

Step 8: Stool Top

The stool top is Madde out of old hardwood board. These boards are 7 inches wide so I have glued three of them together. Once the glue dried we have cut down a circular disc using a jig saw that measures nearly 14 inches in diameter. The disc is then sanded using an orbital sander. As I got the surface finished I have applied a couple of coats of clear varnish which give the stool top a very nice look.

I have then drilled three holes across the stool top and counted them using flushed Allen key bolts.

Step 9: Finished Results

The finished results were just breath taking and the stool turned out to be an eye catching object in our workspace. It proved to be a great transformation and a satisfying project too.

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Regards.

DIY King