<VV> NO CORVAIR -- OFF TOPIC -- I think this group might be able to help

[Steven J. Serenska]

VVers:

About a year ago, I asked this group if anyone had any experience or 
plans regarding building bleachers.  I needed a set for people to watch 
the Bristol, RI 4th of July parade (America's Oldest) from my front 
lawn.  I know that building bleachers isn't Corvair-related, but I do 
know that 99.9% of this list is good with their hands.

If you Google "bleacher plans" you will come up with surprisingly few 
results.  I looked over the 2-3 plans I was able to find, along with 
photos of commercially available bleachers.  Once I learned the basic 
design issues involved, I was able to draw up a set of my own plans 
using Visio.  A few of you advised me to consider the legal liability of 
the project and I factored this into my design as well.  The bleachers 
are designed to hold 20-25 people and a theoretical weight of 5,000 lbs. 

The bleachers were finished in time for this year's parade ... just in 
time.  On the morning of the parade, while I was in the house dealing 
with something else, my friends rigged up a ribbon and demanded that we 
engage in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to inaugurate the bleachers.  Since 
they had sweated out the last 36 hours with me, I was happy to oblige.  
The photo is attached and I hope it comes through on this list.

Once things got underway, the bleachers were filled to capacity and were 
rock-solid.  We had 75 people over for the parade including bleacher 
sitters, porch sitters, and in the case of my daughters and their high 
school friends, roof sitters.

If you look at the picture, you'll see that the entire structure is 
bolted together and can be broken down to individual boards.  For 
storage during the offseason, it all goes over the fence (directly 
behind the bleachers in the photo) and down the bulkhead steps into the 
basement .  It takes about 30 minutes to bring the wood in and out of 
the basement and about 4 hours to assemble everything.

Thanks to everyone who responded last year and to everyone else for the 
non-Corvair bandwidth.  I think they came out pretty well, so if you 
would like the Visio plan I drew up for the bleachers (and the inventory 
of materials), I'm happy to share it.  I'm also happy to advise you to 
hire someone else to build them...  ;-)

Steven "drinking plenty of ice water after this weekend" Serenska

'65 Monza Convertible
'66 Corsa Coupe

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