Building Benches for the Veteran’s Administration By Jack Linder and Dan Simkin

[@chalcedony6858]

This is an absolutely terrific video! You both worked and spoke well about this wonderful project for Veterans (and family members!). I enjoyed it thoroughly. One thought I had, now that my husband and I have reached that age and stiffness of joints, is that Arthritics and other people with knee and joint problems often have trouble rising from low seats. Your height of 18" is fine for that. I wouldn't recommend making them lower for people with ambulatory problems. A question - wheelchairs are needed in the community. It is nearly impossible to find used ones. Most hospitals are undersupplied. The hospital here doesn't have enough wheelchairs. They have some fiberglass chairs, but they are usually all in use. Last week, I took my husband for an exam in an office which is part of a large medical group. Due to the Coronavirus, they are having people wait in their cars, and for those of us without phones, they come out to our car to get the patient. When they came out to get my husband, they insisted he use their wheelchair and not his. They said he would need to transfer to their chair to get near the MRI, anyway. The chair they came out with was ancient! Blue plastic and chrome, the foot rests didn't stay up and couldn't be moved out of the way. I got hurt because he couldn't get out of it when they brought him back, and he fell on top of me, into the car. It's nice to build benches, and canes for Veterans, but another real need is for plain, practical low-cost wheelchairs. Because I'm a woodworker, I'm wondering about the feasability of building some chairs out of wood, or mostly wood. For general hospital use, I would aim for durability, a wide simple seat, that can be pushed from the rear and perhaps powered by the patient as well. The MRI office is using that old steel chair, but wouldn't something non-ferrous be better? My head is filled with old and new, 3 wheels, 5 wheels, even no spoke wheels! Vintage Wooden Wheelchair: www.pinterest.com/pin/402720391676742732/ Most hospitals and doctor's offices have ancient wrecks of wheelchairs. I wonder if a group could be formed to make low-cost wheelchairs for hospitals and doctors? American ingenuity is being utilized to make face masks and respirators. Why not wheelchairs? And why not wood? Franklin Roosevelt's chairs were largely wood. Franklin's Wheelchair fdrperseverance.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/1/1/20114187/7928325.jpg howardmestas.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/11-wheelchair2.jpg A MID-VICTORIAN SATIN-BIRCH WHEELCHAIR BY J. WARD, LONDON, MID 19TH CENTURY With a printed paper label 'J. Ward, Patentee Manufacturer to the Queen and Royal Family, 246 & 247 Tottenham Court Road London, late of Leicester Square' www.pinterest.com/pin/475903885593520327/ I've seen wheelchair designs online and people who make them with very few moving parts for low-technology countries. The United States should be becoming the home to all types of manufacturing. Wheelchairs need to be made at home, for Americans! There are beautiful carbon fiber and high tech wheelchairs, but hospitals need an easily identifiable, basic large manual chair. Think about what parts of this could be made with Pine? Not powered, with rear push handles, traditional wheels. www.pinterest.com/pin/510384570250016747/ I love your bench and what you do. I wish I lived closer, but will continue with great joy, to watch your videos.

[@glencrandall7051]

Nice bench design. Great cause. Thanks GWA.

[@gwinnettwoodworkers]

Thank you Glen!

[@mike1968442]

Awww, that’s awesome, I’m a veteran

[@unitwoodworking5403]

👍👍Thanks for a nice and interesting video.

[@gwinnettwoodworkers]

Thank you! It was a fun class for us!

[@unitwoodworking5403]

@@gwinnettwoodworkers You're welcome. Take care.

[@bruceolson4552]

Can you post a link to the original plans you found online? Thanks.

[@gwinnettwoodworkers]

The bench was an entirely original plan done in Sketchup. When we made the transition from design to build, we discovered that you can't always execute what you design. The design included several dozen mortise and tenon joints to construct the back. During the construction phase, these were converted to dominos by way of a Festool machine. We never went back and created "as built" drawings.