Posted by jerry on December 16th, 2008 — Posted in DIY, Woodwork
This is probably about the tallest you can make them without seriously sacrificing strength or weight – any taller and you really want properly engineered metal or carbon fibre stilts.
This is basically making new legs for old stilts. You can read how I made the original pair here.
Here is the upper strap arrangement with padded shin/knee cup. The screws holding the shin cup go through the webbing for the straps – which are made from high quality seat-belt material.
The boots give the best support and hold for the feet, if the stilts are for one person and you can sacrifice a pair of sneakers or boots – boots are better for ankle protection.
Here is the underside of the foot plate – as you can see the main leg shafts are directly beneath the ball of the foot and quite central so the forces are mainly vertical.
And here is the finished set. The timber is finished with one coat of orange shellac and then wiped over with orange oil to feed the wood and keep out moisture. They are made from straight grained pine with no knots, and are 1.8m tall to the base of the foot plates. The leg timbers are 32mm x 42mm x 1800mm (1.5″x2″x6′)
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by jerry on December 27th, 2007 — Posted in DIY, Journal, Woodwork
If you’re anything like the kind of hobby woodworker that I am, you will now be finding it hard to get to various benches and tools because of all the bits of lumber of various lengths left over from various projects, like dining tables or stilt legs.
It is time to get o r g a n i s e d !! Actually I was inspired by Sharon’s fabric stash reduction challenge – although I wasn’t going to weigh my stash!
I did, however remove every scrap of timber from my shed and thought about how best to organise it so I could get to all the bits of timber I need for different projects on my new years list of things to build.
The rough-sawn timber is ribbon-gum – the remnants of the old gum tree that burnt in the Canberra Bushfire of January 2003; the pale timber is radiata pine, and the red timber is jarrah – a Western Australian hardwood, sometimes called Australian mahogany. I also have a few camphor turning blanks, and some cherry wood and crab apple branches – also for turning.
I decided to improve my wood rack by adding a couple of additional supports, and that entailed modifying the two half-pallets I was using as a base. In the process I also reduced my stash by two bits of lumber – neat huh? 
The two additional supports are dowelled into the shelf supports and screwed to them for additional stability. The supports are made from timber recycled from old brick pallets.
And I have decided that I will machine up all my lumber before returning it to my shed so it’s ready for use when I need it – and no excuses like “I need to dress this timber – heck I’ll just buy some from the hardware store…”
But this year, along with Sharon my aim will be to use up a good portion of my wood stash, rather than expand it.
And I turned around my jointer and thicknesser so that the work flow is better, and I have better access to my work benches. So a good day’s work all round
Cheers
Jerry
DIY jarrah timber wood working woodshop Woodwork workshop
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Posted by jerry on November 19th, 2007 — Posted in Journal, Music
There was still quite a bit of daylight when we arrived at Majors Creek near Braidwood in New South Wales and we wre fortunate in being offered a camping spot in a great location on the edge of the great sports oval on which the bulk of the Music at the Creek festival was to run.
The day was still warm and once we had set up camp, it was time to check out the layout. We were near one venue which had a number of excellent acts from bluesy duos to big sound bands.
As always the highlight for me were the informal music sessions where musicians come together to play and exchange tunes. I came away with a good list of tunes to learn, and pointed others to some great tunes I had picked up during the year.
There were excellent sessions on Friday night and on Saturday night which went until well into the morning. I had another great playoff with Tony Pyrzakowski from Mothers of Intention – a great fiddler and a great mate.
Rosie McDonald and Anne Ridgeway did a lovely set at one of the concert venues, as did Nick and Liesl – an up and coming young Sydney duo.
Will O’ the Wisp was there with stilt walkers and hoop shows and workshops adding to the festival atmosphere. The Morris dancers braved the heat on Saturday and the late afternoon thunderstorm provided a welcome cool change with teh sun returning in the morning to dry everything off before packing up.
Majors is a great festival – big enough to attract great talent and small enough to remain a friendly festival – I’ll be back next year
Cheers
Jerry
folk festival Majors Creek music session
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Posted by jerry on April 15th, 2007 — Posted in Journal, Woodwork
Many of you will be familiar with my peg stilts instructions. And the more my daughter and I use them, the more the design is being refined.
One of the weaker points of the design has always been the straps used to attach them to the legs. As velcro wears, it has become more and more necessary to augment the straps with ‘gaffa’ tape – you know, the stuff bands use, cloth adhesive tape.
Well that is about to change. The latest modification to the design will be revealed here first, then added to the existing stilt design.
The woodwork is just the same. Only the straps are different. And the knee pads. One of the issues with the existing knee pads is that the PVC pipe segment is of too narrow a radius if your legs have well developed musculature – so they can dig in uncomfortably. And the one thing you want is comfort in order to increase the safety of the stilts.
I was in Bunnings today and found some industrial knee-pads. Until now, we have used knee pads in addition to the stilt leg-cups. But I had an idea – why not attach the knee pads directly to the stilts and beef up the straps with non-slip tie-downs buckles.
I had previously solved the foot straps with these and now the time had come to do the same with the upper legs.
Here is the heel strap arrangement
heel straps
and the toe strap
stilts toe strap
I laid out the upper straps with the buckle forward of the knee pads, located the knee pad in position and drilled and screwed the knee pad in place through the straps
knee pad
So the upper straps now work this way
stilts upper straps
So the stilts are complete – and more secure than before. One of the joys of being chief engineer is that I get to test the toys to ensure they are safe 
And I gave them a fair workout for 20 minutes before declaring them safe for my daughter to test. The straps do not slip – and the straps are quickly adjusted for any slack – even while on board the stilts.
For Australian readers, the knee pads are called ‘Protector Multi Purpose Knee Pads – available from Bunnings Warehouse for about AUS$10.50
And the straps are Lion brand ‘Super Cam Buckle’ available in 500mm, 1 metre and 3 metre lengths. The straps are rated to 1000kg, and the metal buckles have spring-loaded teeth that bite harder the more you try to pull them apart – they do not slip. But the spring buckle allows quick release when you want to remove them.
And with the integral industrial knee pads they are more comfortable than before. Enjoy them – safely!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by jerry on October 14th, 2006 — Posted in DIY, Journal, Woodwork
With the legs cut to length, and the supports cut and the whole thing assembled so far, the other elements are the foot-plates and the straps to hold the stilts to the leg and foot.
First: the foot plate.
Cut two pieces of timber – pine or hardwood – into two rectangles each 19mm x 100mm x 260mm.
Then carefully draw a radius across each corner, using a suitable round object – in this case some car polish – as a guide.
Then carefully cut around the radius – you can use a sander, or a coping saw, or in my case a hobby band saw, then sand the corners smooth.
The footplates are now ready to be fitted by drilling and screwing to the support brackets.
Now for the knee cup and straps.
Cut a piece of PVC drain pipe of a radius larger than the wearer’s shin. Cut it about 100mm long and bisect it so you have two matching cups. These will be drilled and screwed to the upright post near the top and with the convex side pointing forward.
Using some old mouse-mat rubber, cut two pieces at 100mm x 250mm and glue them to the cups to provide padding for the shin with a bit left over to wrap around the leg for comfort.
Now, using some wide webbing strap, screw the webbing so it is trapped between the cup and the timber upright, having first stitched velcro in a manner that will allow you to feed it through a D ring and back to attach on itself, holding the leg firmly in the shin-cup.
Do the same with the heel and toe straps – attach them beneath the footplate with scres and washers to hold them firmly in place.
And then you will have a pair of stilts – please use them safely – always with a minder, and practice with good hand-holds until you are confident on them. Once again I take no responsibility for breakage or injury if you choose to build these stilts.
Enjoy!
Cheers
Jerry
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