The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • Power Lift Chair Upholstery Protection

    For reasons not relevant here, we have a power lift chair which has been shedding upholstery tufts since the day we got it. After realizing this wasn’t going to stop on its own, I spent a while poking around underneath and discovered the steel struts supporting the leg rest rub along the upholstery during their entire travel:

    Lift chair - strut vs upholstery
    Lift chair – strut vs upholstery

    Apparently, the padding behind the upholstery pushes it a bit further out than the original design could accommodate, letting the raw edges on the steel struts shave off the fuzz.

    I put relatively smooth stainless steel tape on all the protrusions and bent it around the rough edges:

    Lift chair - strut smoothing
    Lift chair – strut smoothing

    Those steel folds are smoother than they appear.

    It’s not obvious this will solve the problem, but the struts seems to be scraping off much less fuzz than before, so it’s a step in the right direction.

    Why is it all of today’s consumer products require 10% more engineering to work in the real world?