I've got a crazy idea for a custom toilet seat frame that has been bugging me recently. I use one like this at home:
I've had it for almost eight years now, and I've gone through three of the padded toilet seat tops, with the same frame, which I'm pretty sure is steel, as it is now rusting pretty good.
I absolutely hate lugging it around on trips, just because it takes up so much room in a suitcase. It's hard to see in the pictures, but even with the legs popped off, the top of the frame is a rectangle about 22" x 22" x 9", which is a healthy chunk of my very large suitcase.
So I'm thinking about having a frame custom made, so that the rectangle with the tops of the legs is shorter by a few inches, and the seat top is narrower. I'm thinking I can pare it down to about 18" x 18" x 6" and have it shaped so that the cushion (which I just rest on top now for ease of disassembly) and legs will sit inside this smaller box. I figure that would make the whole package less than half the volume of what it is now, plus if I was having it custom made I could have it set at a fixed height with legs that just slide in (the highest setting on my current chair has worked in all of the several dozen different toilets I have used it in various homes, hotels and campground privy's.
The titanium idea is just me being a fanboy. I recognize that aluminium could probably be had easier for a lower price, but I don't like aluminum... I just don't like the look or feel or the way it oxidizes so weirdly.
I found a guy who makes custom bicycles close to where I live, so i was gonna give him a call or maybe drop by his shop and see what he would charge for something like that. His bicycle frames start at $3,000, but I figure this frame would be much simpler to construct. I count four bends of a nice long titanium tube plus two short straight pieces for legs opposite the cutout, and four straight legs, which is only two welded connections. The only extra machining might be some flaring of the downtubes to accept the legs (so they slide in and out).
Surely this has to be much less labor intensive than a finely tuned bicycle frame, right? I've seen people bend titanium, and if you've got the tools for it, it doesn't seem like such a big deal. Welding it probably sucks, but there are at least five times more welds on his frames, not to mention all the other complexities of a bicycle frame. The titanium tubing itself isn't all that expensive (from looking online) something like $20 a foot or so? I figure there's at most 12 feet of tubing required, accounting for some excess that's cut off.
I'm hoping he could make the frame for me for around $500 or $600, but I'm no machinist or welder, so I'm probably being overly optimistic. If this poor quality steel one has lasted nearly a decade, surely a titanium one would last the rest of my life so in the end it would probably be worth it... assuming I can find someone to do a decent job building one for a half-reasonable price.
Anybody have an opinion on whether or not this is a good idea (or know of someone who works with titanium that might be up to take on a project like this?
Custom titanium toilet seat frame opinions
I've had it for almost eight years now, and I've gone through three of the padded toilet seat tops, with the same frame, which I'm pretty sure is steel, as it is now rusting pretty good.
I absolutely hate lugging it around on trips, just because it takes up so much room in a suitcase. It's hard to see in the pictures, but even with the legs popped off, the top of the frame is a rectangle about 22" x 22" x 9", which is a healthy chunk of my very large suitcase.
So I'm thinking about having a frame custom made, so that the rectangle with the tops of the legs is shorter by a few inches, and the seat top is narrower. I'm thinking I can pare it down to about 18" x 18" x 6" and have it shaped so that the cushion (which I just rest on top now for ease of disassembly) and legs will sit inside this smaller box. I figure that would make the whole package less than half the volume of what it is now, plus if I was having it custom made I could have it set at a fixed height with legs that just slide in (the highest setting on my current chair has worked in all of the several dozen different toilets I have used it in various homes, hotels and campground privy's.
The titanium idea is just me being a fanboy. I recognize that aluminium could probably be had easier for a lower price, but I don't like aluminum... I just don't like the look or feel or the way it oxidizes so weirdly.
I found a guy who makes custom bicycles close to where I live, so i was gonna give him a call or maybe drop by his shop and see what he would charge for something like that. His bicycle frames start at $3,000, but I figure this frame would be much simpler to construct. I count four bends of a nice long titanium tube plus two short straight pieces for legs opposite the cutout, and four straight legs, which is only two welded connections. The only extra machining might be some flaring of the downtubes to accept the legs (so they slide in and out).
Surely this has to be much less labor intensive than a finely tuned bicycle frame, right? I've seen people bend titanium, and if you've got the tools for it, it doesn't seem like such a big deal. Welding it probably sucks, but there are at least five times more welds on his frames, not to mention all the other complexities of a bicycle frame. The titanium tubing itself isn't all that expensive (from looking online) something like $20 a foot or so? I figure there's at most 12 feet of tubing required, accounting for some excess that's cut off.
I'm hoping he could make the frame for me for around $500 or $600, but I'm no machinist or welder, so I'm probably being overly optimistic. If this poor quality steel one has lasted nearly a decade, surely a titanium one would last the rest of my life so in the end it would probably be worth it... assuming I can find someone to do a decent job building one for a half-reasonable price.
Anybody have an opinion on whether or not this is a good idea (or know of someone who works with titanium that might be up to take on a project like this?
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