#Webbing for aluminum lawn chair how to#
#Webbing for aluminum lawn chair portable#

Hold the sling with its hem side to the back and slide its nylon rod into the track of the rail that’s still attached to the chair frame. Matthew Septimus Step 4: Slide the new sling on Go to Frame Touch-Up Techniques for how-to and tips. This is the best time to retouch or repaint your frame. Loosen but don’t remove the bolts that attach the rails to the chair frame, then pop out the spreader bar. Slide the two halves of the sling out of their tracks in the chair’s rails. (A damaged sling cannot be saved.) Remove the end cap on each side rail. Slash the old sling down the middle with a utility knife. Matthew Septimus Step 2: Cut the old sling To find the length, lay a cloth tape measure along the top face of one rail so it follows the rail’s curvature.

To find the width, measure from the center of one rail to the center of the opposite rail at the bolt locations typically found at the top and bottom of the sling.

#Webbing for aluminum lawn chair how to#

Not too shabby for something you sit on while drinking beer and eating barbecue.Related How to Care for Wood Patio Furniture Steps for Repairing Aluminum Patio Chairs Step 1: Order a new sling (for mesh sling replacement)īefore you get started on your patio sling chair repair, you have to measure your chairs and order replacement sling. Why change it? It's a design so revered, that it's recognized by the Museum of Modern Art-in fact, they sell the chair in their official store, right along Arne Jacobsen's famed Egg Chair and the Eames Lounge Chair. They're handsome chairs that look a whole lot like the ones that were being cranked out half a century ago. This is still all done by hand to ensure the exact tension needed for a comfortable sit. The most time-consuming part of the process, Pokrandt says, is weaving the fade-resistant webbing onto the seat and back in a hardwearing T-bar design. Sturdy aluminum tubes are cut to length and then placed into a bender before getting punched with holes to assemble the folding mechanism. Today, they make dozens of different styles and designs from their small factory in Florida. They fired up production on the webbing again and started cranking out their version of the nostalgic chairs. It was clear that the demand was there, so the Pokrandts bought some old production equipment from a former client to create aluminum frames. But when chair manufacturing moved overseas, business all but dried up. “When these chairs were very popular, most of the webbing came from my grandfather's factory,” he says. Pokrandt's grandfather owned a company that made plastic yarn and waterproof webbing. Gary Pokrandt officially founded Lawn Chair USA with his son Andrew in 2009, but lawn chairs have been something of a family business for generations. Those imitations of the real deal is ultimately what lead to one small company reviving the chairs. Inside Lawn Chair USA's Florida workshop. The affordability, usefulness and minimalist style of the design made the chairs a ubiquitous household staple.

#Webbing for aluminum lawn chair portable#

The chair's shape and interwoven fabric webbing were eventually refined and by the late 1950s, the Fredric Arnold Company was manufacturing more than 14,000 of these portable chairs each day from its Brooklyn factory. His original design in 1947 was more crude and less sturdy than today's metal folding chairs, but was it was influenced by the stripped-down utilitarian designs of the early mid-century modern period.

A former P-38 combat fighter pilot named Fredric Arnold came up with the idea of streamlining an existing collapsible chair that had been used for decades in schools and churches. It was actually a WWII veteran turned inventor who designed the original lawn chair. Turns out, narrow aluminum tubing was great for making chairs. After the war, manufacturers sought other uses for the strong yet lightweight material. Aluminum production soared during the war, since it was used in the structural framing of military aircraft. The rise of this all-American staple coincided with the growth of suburbs after World War II, when homes with larger lawns were suddenly more affordable. I wonder how many Fourth of July fireworks have been admired from the webbed seat of a classic aluminum lawn chair? How many great summer memories from your youth are punctuated with the sound of those chairs being snapped open? Lightweight and durable, the portable chairs are carted to campouts and tailgates, backyard barbecues and beaches. The folding lawn chair is an American summertime classic.