Recliner support - material recs please!

General
1

I need some material recommendations! My powered recliner has broken in a few spots, and I need to replace the support for the foot extension. Unfortunately I’m a cheapskate and the new part from the manufacturer is expensive :money_with_wings:

Designing the support bracket is pretty easy, but I’m not sure what material to choose. It will exclusively be indoors and will be hidden under the chair, so it doesn’t need to be pretty. It needs to be relatively strong to resist bending, and I’d prefer an inexpensive metal so I don’t break the bank.

I’m also considering powder coating for it to match the rest of the hardware, so any material that SCS will powder coat gets bonus points

2

The factory material is most likely “mild steel”, the most common form of steel available. You can test to see if it’s mild steel with a magnet. If the magnet sticks, it’s mild steel. If it doesn’t stick, it’s probably aluminum…and if that’s true, you bought a REALLY nice recliner :rofl:

Assuming it’s mild steel, I’d try and go with the greatest thickness possible before it interferes with function/design. Without seeing it, I’m going to guess that .074" will be pretty close to the original. Anything over .119" might be overkill. Either one will be reasonably priced since we cut so much of it. Oh, and we can powder coat it too :raised_hands: