10 ounce Grand Trunk Nano camp stool, $16 @ REI outlet

picked one of those up too to compare.

NM.

Adam,

Do you have the link, it still shows $15.83 when I go to REI.

Jack

Nm Adam,

I thought you were talking about the Nano stool, thanks.

OK, K-man, here's the semi-final mod of my Nano stool. I swapped the stock seat out for a bonded cuben version. This dropped the weight to 9.5 oz. (which doesn't include the 9" Easton stakes). If I decide to go all the way, I'll take out the bungees and leg caps, and gain another ounce. But I kind of like the way that holds everything together.

My ultimate goal is to figure out how to make a full sized version of this stool design, using tubular titanium for the frame. I can't find anybody that knows what inside/outside diameters are required to support 250 pounds in this fashion. It's also hard to find someone that is comfortable bending titanium. And with the price of ti tubing, I can only afford to do this once–no mistakes allowed on this budget. The quest continues…

I think you should look towards some Ti bicycle framebuilders to bend up the legs. Maybe Carl Strong, Jim Kish, Firefly, or Seven depending on what part of the country you're in.

-Mark in St. Louis

I see now you're in Boulder…maybe Moots in Steamboat Springs could help…dunno, they're a "bigger" shop.

-Mark

Thanks, Mark. I thought of Moot's, but Steamboat is a 4-hour drive from Boulder. I also thought of checking out the Engineering department here at CU, to see if this would be a decent lab project for first or second-year students, at least to determine the OD/ID specs for the tubing. There is another custom bike shop here, and I think I should start with them first since they're just 20 minutes away. I appreciate your input!

Nice Gary! Now you've one-upped me! What weight cuben and what was your bonding method? I gotta try this next.

I don't know, K-man, you're pretty hard to beat. I picked up some CT5K cuben, weighing 1.43 oz./yard, from Brendan Swihart a few weeks ago (he might still have some). The bonding agent I used was Loctite Hysol U-09FL, which seemed to be the consensus choice here on BPL. The cheapest I've found is from Stanley. I went through an entire 50 ml unit doing the Nano stool seat, and also another one I've made for a full size stool. At $20+ per unit, Hysol ain't cheap. I just ordered 3 more units from Stanley for a total of $57, including shipping and 1.60% tax of some sort, which works out to be the cheapest I've found (if you order $50 from them, they knock off 10%).

This grade of cuben is pretty macho, and the Hysol is a great adhesive. I folded the side edges over 1/2" and bonded that, waited a day for that to set, then I placed a full 1.0" bond where I folded the ends over the stool frame. Loctite's spec sheet states that a full and complete cure happens after a week, so I haven't done any serious weight tests yet. But after 2 days, I did some gentle sitting on the stool, and things seem fine. It will be a full week this Tuesday, so I'll do some mega butt-bounces on the little guy, to see if I can learn any limits to the fabric and bonding. I'm pretty sure it's going to work though. The weight of the cuben seat and Hysol turned out to be .3 oz, so I saved .7 oz. over the 1.0 oz. red stock seat.

Next week I'll start checking out the titanium tubing concept in earnest. I'm a bit scared here, as it looks like I'll have to spring for maybe $200/stool for the ti tubing (via Titanium Joe–but maybe there's another source I can find somewhere). At that price, this certainly won't be a commercially viable product, but it would be a major coup if I can come up with a 10 oz. full size camp stool (that's the way MYOG geeks think). The squirrels and the wood nymphs will think I'm a major player, I just know it! But so far, my friends just shake their heads at what I do with my free time…

Let us know what you come up with, Konrad