Welding Stool

When I started working the Mojo, this was the first welding stool I bought, in fall ’04, for only $40:

it was cheap, but exceedingly uncomfortable; they say it’s padded, but trust me, it ain’t.  Not only that, but it’s too tall; on two occasions I cut a couple of inches off of the legs, but still found myself hunched over while welding.  In July 2007, I bought a better stool:

A little more expensive, $99, but much more comfortable for long periods, the height is a little lower (and can be adjusted even lower), and it’s got wheels.  Aaaaah, much better.

Well, maybe not.  The seat was comfy and the gas cylinder for height adjustment was nice, but the base was a piece o' crap.  Cheap plastic wheels with fragile bearings, and a stamped sheet-metal spider that ultimately got bent and cracked from sitting down too firmly just one too many times. 

Solution?  Salvage the top end, and rebuild the bottom. 

Start with five short pieces of angle iron, five 1"-square tubes, and five small blocks of solid steel:

Weld the blocks onto the ends of the tubes, drill holes to receive the caster wheels, and round all the sharp edges/corners on a belt sander:

Sandblast:

Weld the five tubes into a kind of pentagram, immediately negating the sandblasting job you just did:

Weld the five short pieces of angle iron around the center, and then weld in the gas-cylinder adapter ring from the old chair:

After sandblasting (again) and applying a nice coat of gloss black paint (too big to fit in powdercoat oven...), install the wheels.  These are nice double-wheel casters with ball bearings and a soft rubber rim for quiet/smooth/effortless action:

The finished spider:

With the seat and gas cylinder installed, ready for battle:

Although the wheelbase is identical to the original spider, the skinny legs and gigantic saddle result in odd visual proportions.  But it's bulletproof now, and the gliding/rolling action provided by the new wheels is a vast improvement.