How to Make Crutches at Home

Crutches are useful aids for a person who is injured or lame. They remove the weight from a painful or immobile foot or leg and supplant it to the upper body. Financial constraints or temporary support that does not justify the cost of purchasing a manufactured pair of crutches may prompt you to make your own. Whatever the reason for making your own crutches, do-it-yourself crutches are simple to craft and only require a few tools and some items commonly found around the house.

Things You'll Need

• Tape measure
• Wooden broom handles
• Saw
• Drill
• 1/16-inch drill bit
• Screwdriver drill bit
• 1/4-inch screws
• Bathtub

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Instructions

• 1

  Measure from your armpits to the ground. Cut two lengths of broom handle, both equal to the measurement. Cut bilaterally, from the top of each broom handle, down 2/3 of the length, splitting each handle down the middle. Two semi-circles at the end of each handle are created by the cuts you make. The effect is two forks, each with two legs.

• 2

  Put the handles in water and soak them for 12 hours. The water softens the wood and makes it pliable enough for you to bend the legs of the forks. Cut two more pieces from the original handles, 1 foot in length each. Drill pilot holes through the diameters of these 1-foot lengths with a 1/16-inch bit: two holes per length -- one hole, 3 inches from each end of both lengths.

• 3

  Drill two pilot holes into the split end of each soaked length of handle. Drill the holes into the center of each semi-circle. The holes run perpendicular to the length of the handles.

• 4

  Place a 1-foot-long section of handle perpendicular to the split end of one of the soaked forks. Drill a one-fourth-inch screw into one of the pilot holes in the 1-foot-long section, through, and into the pilot hole of one leg of the fork. Spread the other leg over to the second pilot hole of the 1-foot piece. Drill a screw through the pilot hole of the 1-foot piece and into the pilot hole of the leg. Do the same for the other crutch.

• 5

  Measure from your armpit to the center of your palm. Subtract 4.5 inches. Measure from the top of one crutch -- now fitted with a 1-foot piece across the top, between the two legs, down each leg. Drill holes from the outside of the crutches toward the center at lengths equal to your measurement. The holes face one another.

• 6

  Measure the distance from the inside of one leg to the inside of the other on each crutch. Cut two lengths of broom handle, from the original, equal in length to the measurement. Drill pilot holes in each end of the pieces you cut to length. Place the lengths between the legs of the crutches, lining up the pilot holes. Drill screws from the outside of the legs into the lengths. Each crutch requires two screws.