How It All Started
Got this wild idea last Tuesday after smashing my toe against the coffee table leg – again. Thought to myself, “What if wood could bounce back like rubber?” Dug through my garage stash and grabbed some scrap oak pieces. Messy as hell in there, dust bunnies having parties.
The First Disaster
Started by slapping rubber pads under the wood legs. Looked terrible, like Frankenstein furniture. Tried dancing on it – nearly ate the floor when one pad shot out sideways. Heard the wood crack like thunder. Big mistake. Ended up with three busted oak blocks and a pissed-off downstairs neighbor banging on the ceiling.
Round Two Mess
Switched to old car shock absorber parts from Dave’s junkyard pickup. Grease everywhere – ruined my favorite shirt. Bolted one under a thicker maple slab. Jumped on it like a trampoline:
- Violent shaking: Whole thing wobbled like jello
- Weird screeching: Sounded like dying cats
- Bolts snapping: Metal bits flying everywhere
Maple slab survived though. Small win.
The Stupid Simple Fix
Took five broken attempts to realize – stop fighting physics. Cut tennis balls in half. Gorilla-glued them onto the bottom corners of a walnut slab. Ugly yellow blobs stuck to nice wood. Felt like giving up.
Finally Worked… Sorta
Stepped on it gently. Bounced like a cheap motel bed. Jumped harder – actually absorbed the shock! Danced a terrible waltz. Slab stayed put, no flying objects. Wood didn’t crack. Even the noise dropped to a dull thump.
What Actually Happens
Turns out the tennis ball rubber squishes sideways when you stomp down. Spreads the force instead of resisting it. Like stepping on ketchup packet – splat out the sides, not straight down. Shock gets eaten by the floor instead of the wood. Felt stupid for not trying $2 tennis balls before wrecking $40 hardwood.
Moral of this disaster? Sometimes dumb solutions work better than fancy engineering. Still picking yellow rubber scraps off my workshop floor though.
