I've made the top of a slat bench and am ready to attach four iron hairpin legs underneath. But before I do that, I have a question: How does one determine the optimal placement of the legs?
I'm not engineer, but I assume that if they're too far apart, the stress will be greater when someone sits on the center of the bench. And if they're too close, the bench will seesaw
when someone sits on one end.
Any suggestions? (The bench is 48" long and the legs measure 18")
Sounds like a fun project...
Assuming the slats are of comparable dimensions and materials to those on a standard Nelson bench, the differing stresses due to positioning legs will be negligible on a 48" bench. The design is almost over-built in that length... I just wouldn't suggest placing the legs so far to the ends that there is less than an inch of edge material on the side of a securing screw.
There is no...
optimal placement from a mechanical point of view because we do not know the load and the place of the load. To increase stability by putting them toward the sides sounds very reasonable. What is left is "visual" so I would create a rectangular proportion in the enclosed space between floor, bench and the legs of 1:1,618 (golden section) Which means that the legs would be just short of 9,5" from the sides. I do not know if the thickness of the legs but it would be nice if the outside proportions (height versus cantelever) would be 1:2 (9x18).
applying the golden section formula to a bench
Thank you both very much for replying. With the help of a planer and a lot of clamping, it's been a fun project.
Koen, I read a few explanations online about the Golden Section but I'm having trouble applying the ratio to my bench project without coming up with different numbers than yours. Since I'd like to apply the ratio to future projects, could you tell me where I've gone wrong? Please forgive my ignorance in advance.
a) Since the length of the bench is 48 inches, I'm assuming that the length between the legs (from the side view) needs to be 1/1.618th.
b) I divided 48" by 1.168 to get approx. 41".
c) So I assume that the length between the legs needs to be approx 41"
d) Centering the legs, that seems to suggest that I should attach the legs 3.5" ([48-41]/2) from each edge.
Where did I go wrong?
Let's see...
To create a golden section rectangle between the two legs and the top you multiply the height of the leg (18") by 1,618, so the distance between the legs should be 29,124 ( 29 1/8") If I deduct that distance from the overall 48 I have 18 7/8" left to be divided by two for the two sides....so 9 7/16" on each side. But the legs have some kind of thickness so, considering that you want to create an inside rectangle with the golden section as proportion the distance to the side should be 9 7/16" - the thickness of the leg. Your proposal is using the golden section as a linear proportion, which in this case does not work so well. Sorry for not having mentioned both possibilities
If you need any help, please contact us at – info@designaddict.com