DIY Solution for height adjustment on benches

Thought I should share this idea for a solution on how to adjust the height of your bench:


This idea has some un-needed features specific for a bench that belongs to a friend of mine. I will use this idea slightly modified in my own bench project, and will post a guide on the whole thing at my website.

The basic idea is that the riser box will be the foot on both legs on the bench. To adjust the height, you drop in a single "shim" or spacer, or a combination. If you make three spacers (5mm, 7mm and 10mm height), you can adjust the height with 5, 7, 10, 12, 15, 17 and 22mm depending on how you stack the spacers. A steel rod is added to give extra strenght (wooden works too). By lining the inside with thin felt (for example 1mm thick) and make the cavity a little wider and longer than the leg that goes into it (3mm if the felt is 1mm), it should stay on if you lift the bench at a slight angle.

The big holes in the spacers won't be necessary, but the little ones is needed so that you can lift the spacers out of the cavity easily. The spacers would need to be slightly smaller than the cavity+felt.

What do you think?

I think that it might have the added function as a dust collector, second only to that space under the pedals.
James

Nope, not if the fit is tight.

The basic idea is that the riser box will be the foot on both legs on the bench. To adjust the height, you drop in a single "shim" or spacer, or a combination. If you make three spacers (5mm, 7mm and 10mm height), you can adjust the height with 5, 7, 10, 12, 15, 17 and 22mm depending on how you stack the spacers. A steel rod is added to give extra strenght (wooden works too). By lining the inside with thin felt (for example 1mm thick) and make the cavity a little wider and longer than the leg that goes into it (3mm if the felt is 1mm), it should stay on if you lift the bench at a slight angle.

Having just made 2 feet to raise my bench with 16 mm i would advise to anticipate that floors are not always perfectly flat.
Therefore, at both extremities of each feet (in my case 40 cm long) i had to mount small pieces forming "feet of the foot" about 5 cm long and placed underneath at the extremities of both feet. The height of them should be sufficient to allow the feet to "bridge" the expected floor unevenness.
If this is omitted, the bench has a unwanted tendency to wobble. For a rocking chair this is on purpose, but for an organ bench... i prefer it to be rock stable.

All the best.

Erik.

Good point! And since I live in a very old house (the oldest part - where my organ is placed - is over 150 years old), there's no such thing as straight lines anywhere!

I'll consider using two adjustable foots on each side (the type that screws into the leg and can be adjusted that way). They need to be recessed so that the riser sits as close to the floor as possible (just looks nicer).