Another building a drawdown stand thread

[Thor]

So I'm getting prepared building my first western saddle, after having built my first English dressage saddle at a course with George MacEachran in Scotland. While a drawdown stand isn't necessary building an English style saddle it seems to be absolutely necessary building a western saddle.

I'm having a few sketches and drawings on various stands. Due to time and space I want to stick to a simple model for now. There are a few things I would like to know before I'm finishing my own drawings.

It looks like most stands are at an average height of 36". Now I'm not the tallest person with 5' 8" so I wonder if the ideal height of that stand can be found in a certain way.

Further, the head of the stand leaves me with questions. Obviously it should be covered, but what materials do work best for you?

Once I got these things figured out I'll be building my stand and post some pictures on here.

Thank you for all your help.

[Thor]

The oil still has to dry and I will ad some padding to the top, but other than that this should work. Not all too bad for a first. I identified a few things to make better and different for my second one. I'll be making another one not as tall as this one.

[Thor]

This one is done. Just have to make the draw-down strap etc. and I'll be ready to start my first western saddle.

 

 

[rktaylor]

That looks nice. I think you'll like the shorter one also.

Randy

Edited December 4, 2016 by rktaylor
Grammar

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

Not meaning to be critical, but if you build another stand, I would make the adjustment different.  I think you'll find this one does not have a fine enough adjustment, unless I'm not seeing something?  My first drawdown stand I built myself (and still prefer over my others) had a ratchet that I made myself out of a piece of scrap strap iron.  It is over 25 years old and I use it daily. It looks like it's been through hell, but it's still pretty solid.  I have a couple others that I bought that are hydraulic, but the height isn't quite right for me. I'm about 5'6" and they're made for taller people. 

[brmax]

That's a pretty cool stand! any splittin adustment needs you may want later, here's and idea.

A wood wedge with a couple dips for adjustment to sit at the cross pipe, like a door or wheel chock.

nice stand for sure

Floyd

 

[Thor]

Thanks for your inputs @rktaylor @Big Sioux Saddlery and @brmax. Spacing between the holes is one inch and I'm planning to ad a few adjustment holes to the draw-down strap system. Haven't done that yet.

For the next one I'm actually looking for a ready made ratchet system. For some silly reason I seam to be unable to locate an old barber's chair here in Germany. If I can't find anything I guess I'll have to make something myself. However, that will be left to some time down the road as I'm currently prepping my master patterns and planning the design of the 3 first western saddles I'm wanting to build. After those I'm thinking of making another English dressage saddle.

[brmax]

omg

 Thor look around some of the surplus sales or auctions, heck I was in Hanau in the Army way back and haircuts were the rule : )

good luck

Floyd

[Thor]

9 hours ago, brmax said:

omg

 Thor look around some of the surplus sales or auctions, heck I was in Hanau in the Army way back and haircuts were the rule : )

good luck

Floyd

Thanks Floyd