"FoggyTown" wrote in
ups.com:


1. Get two sawhorses and place them with the rails parallel to each
other and the distance between the rails the exact distance between
the chair legs.
2. Get a very fat neighbor over for "a few beers"
3. Lay a 1/4 sheet of 1/2" play across the sawhorse rails
4. Get fat neighbor to sit on sheet
5. If it bends, get 3/4" sheet and repeat and so on until sheet
doesn't bend or sawhorses collapse

FoggyTown



You're not thinking like an engineer. You get the sawhorses as mentioned
before, but if you can't find a fat neighbor, you'll have to get a laser
caliper set to measure the displacement between a reference straight edge
(square) and the deflection of the chair.

You know, this isn't going to give good data. So, you need the sawhorse
and laser caliper, but also a force gauge. Hook the force gauge to the
board, and pull it down until it fails. The force and displacement (and
$2000 worth of new shiny tools) will then give you an accurate idea of
what thickness to use. ;-)

Puckdropper
--
Wise is the man who attempts to answer his question before asking it.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm