Simple Motorcycle Tire Chair

Got any spare tires laying around which cant be used anymore? You cannot dispose of them in normal household waste and having them disposed of in the workshop is only an unnecessary cost for yourself and also for the workshop. The best solution to the problem: You recycle it and build yourself a comfortable chair to relax in.

Step 1: Get All the Materials and Tools

In order to build the chair, not only few parts, but also few tools are needed. In addition, the construction of the chair costs as little as nothing, because you can build it with any scrap that you have lying around.

The required materials:

- spare tires (you can use any type of tire and as many as you want, car tires can be used too)

- some screws and hexnuts

- spare wood

- old mattress or any material you want as a cushion

The required tools:

- drill with different drill bits (wood bits are an advantage)

- screwdrivers

- allen keys in different sizes (depending on your choice of screws)

- ratchet with different sized heads for the hexnuts

- jigsaw or regular saw or even a swiss army knife will do the job

Step 2: Support for the Lower Tire

Cut four wooden supports at the height of the tire. Place the struts inside the tire at opposite positions so that the tire does not collapse under the load of the person sitting on it.

Then fasten them to the underside of the tire with screws to hold them in place.

Step 3: Joining Both Tires

Then you need to drill holes in both tires so that you can connect them with screws. The easiest way is to drill the holes into the rubber with a wood drill. As soon as the holes are drilled, the screws can be pushed into the holes of the lower tire from the inside. However, the screws should be long enough to leave space for the other tire and the cushion plate.
Then drill holes on the underside of the upper tire in the same positions as on the lower tyre. If this is also done, the screws on the lower tire can be put through the holes of the upper tire. With a little finesse this should be done quite quickly, but if the tire is difficult to put on the screws, you should enlarge the holes a little or try to do it with even more force. To keep the tires together, nuts should be screwed onto the screws. However, only two of the four screws should be fitted with nuts. Two should remain free, as these are used to fix the plate for the cushion.

Step 4: Support Plate for the Cushion

In order to keep the cushion in position, a plate should be inserted into the upper tire that is stable enough to hold a person. Therefore I put a thicker wooden plate on one of the tires and drew with a pen a circle the size of the tire onto the board. This board should then be cut at the marking so that it can be easily inserted into the tire. Before putting it into the tire, the edges should be sanded down.

The next procedure is to put the board into the tire for testing (tire levers or other levers could be an advantage), so that you can mark the necessary places to drill the holes for the screws. If these places are marked, holes should be drilled and you can try to put the board back into the tire and hit the holes with the screws. A helper might be able to make the installation easier. The board must then be fastened with nuts.

The chair is ready, only the pillow is missing, but you can already try it out.

Step 5: The Cushion

In order to be able to sit comfortably in a chair, you should cut a circle the size of a tire from an old mattress. You should also pay attention to the necessary height of the tire, for this it might be necessary to cut a second circle out of the mattress. You should always check whether the required height has already been reached and whether you can sit comfortably. If the height is perfect, a pillowcase can be sewn from fabric of any choice. I have chosen the remains of my old motorcycle pants, which were destroyed in an accident.

If the cover is sewn, the seat cushion can already be inserted into the chair.

Step 6: Decorations

In order to give the chair a more rustic flair, I also put some small screws into the upper tire as decoration. To do this, holes have to be drilled again and, if necessary, enlarged to make it easier to fit.
These screws make the tire look as if silver rivets were attached to it.

Step 7: Utilization of Leftovers

Since there are still large pieces of fabric left from my trousers, I had the idea to make an additional smaller cushion for the chair. It can be used not only as a headrest, but also as a backrest.
First a cover had to be sewn out of the trousers, into which a cushion was then inserted as a filling. Optionally also old socks or rags can be used or in addition, remainders of the mattress.

Step 8: You Made It!

Very nice! You have now made your own chair out of old tires. I hope that you will have a lot of fun with it. The idea for this chair came to me at school when we were supposed to design chairs for our art lessons. My goal was to build a chair that would remind me of my passion, riding motorcycles, and at the same time give new value to materials that are no longer used and cost as little as possible. I only spent money on the screws for my chair. The total costs amount to a maximum of 6€. I was allowed to take the tires with me from a local motorcycle repair shop and the wood and all other materials lay around at my home.

You can simply make something useful out of nearly all the leftover things. Have fun with your new chair! :)