DIY office chair wheel repair

In detail: do-it-yourself office chair wheel repair from a real master for the site my.housecope.com.

A computer chair is an essential attribute of a modern person's workplace, without which it is difficult to imagine an office or office.

Office chairs are designed to be lightweight, maneuverable and comfortable for extended work in the office or at home

The convenience of a computer chair is expressed in its ergonomic and functional form, it is suitable for people of any body type, height or weight. All this is possible due to the unique ability to adjust the height or level of the backrest to the needs of a particular user, for which the gas lift, built into the structure of each chair, is responsible.

The main symptoms of a gas lift malfunction

However, the same part is also a vulnerable spot, the breakdown of which renders the entire functionality of the seat unusable.

Office chairs are comfortable and functional furniture, but sometimes they require repair

Parts of the computer chair that may need to be replaced or repaired

Office chair layout

If you are faced with a malfunction of the computer chair, you need to find out which part needs repair. One of the most common causes of breakage is the gas lift, as the part that is most susceptible to wear and tear.

Homemade repairs will not restore the full functionality of the office chair

There are two ways to fix a broken gas lift breakage. The first option is to replace the defective part with a new one, no matter which one, from a whole chair or bought in a store.

Chair gas lift or lifting mechanism is designed to adjust the height of the office chair

This method can be considered expensive, since the purchase of a whole gas lift will be required. To make a replacement, you need the following set of tools:

Video (click to play).

carpentry hammer;
pliers;
a bolt with a diameter of at least 10 mm;
screwdriver or screwdriver;
technical lubrication.

Repair tool kit

We remove the wheels and dismantle the back of the seat, for which we turn the chair over and unscrew the necessary screws from the bottom of the chair. This is necessary for the subsequent convenience of dismantling, you also need to remove the armrests, if any.

Use a Phillips screwdriver to unscrew the 4 bolts

Remove the seat from the chair mechanism

Detached chair mechanism

We proceed to dismantle the gas lift

New gas lift to replace the broken one

Putting the cross in place

Assembled chair after renovation

The second method is cheaper, it consists in fixing the gas lift in one position. However, this method eliminates the possibility of adjusting the height of the chair, but if you need the same height, it is quite suitable. You will need:

screwdriver;
pipe, rubber hose, or a set of washers, depending on what you have at hand;
a rag to remove traces of oil.

Before starting the repair, it is important to make sure that there is no gas in the gas lift and that the gas chamber has free movement up and down, that is, if the height adjustment lever is loose. Only then follow the instructions.

According to the instructions presented earlier, we remove the chair together with the rocking mechanism, leaving the crosspiece.

We knock down the crosspiece from the chair with a mallet, you need to hit as close to the middle as possible, alternately from different sides of the pneumatic cartridge

We turn it up and in the center we see the latch, remove it, and then take out the washers covered with oil. Having done this, you can pull out the outer casing, from which the lifting rod sticks out, on which the rubber damper, thrust washer, bearing and second thrust washer are attached.

Remove the steel latch washer

We remove the glass, and then everything else from the axis - an elastic band, washers and a bearing

Next, we select the supply, which we will fix on the lifting rod, thereby fixing the height of the chair at a certain level. You can use any material from PVC pipes to a hose and washers with nuts, the main thing is that it fits freely on the stem.

We make a tube of the required length, with an inner diameter not less than the diameter of the axis

Measure the required length of the hose and secure it with a damper, then screw on the thrust washer, bearing, second washer and insert the structure back into the gas lift housing.

We put the resulting tube on the axle, and then an elastic band (if it is still alive) and washers with a bearing

Reassemble the gas lift by installing the outer washers and latch. The chair is ready.

We put the cross in place, and complete the assembly by installing the wheels

This is what a metal crosspiece looks like with plastic covers on the bottom.

A separate case is the breakage of the crosspiece. Although this part is made of particularly durable materials, it cannot be damaged, especially if it is made of plastic.

Types of crosspieces: plastic, aluminum, metal with wooden pads

Fortunately, replacing this part with a new one is quite simple. You will need:

To replace, follow the instructions: turn the computer chair upside down, pull the wheels out of the mountings. Take a pair of pliers and use a circular motion to knock out the gas lift, applying pinpoint blows along its edges.

To remove the plastic crosspiece from the gas lift, you need to hold on to the gas lift and tap the crosspiece from above around the attachment point with light hammer blows

After detaching the spider, fit the casters onto the new one and insert the second part of the chair into the hole. You don't have to worry about incompatibilities, as all office chairs have a standardized gas lift mount.

To knock out the gas lift from the cross, it is better to use a spacer of the appropriate size. to prevent blows to the central part of the gas lift

Thus, you can fix any office chair with your own efforts, without the costly purchase of a new chair.

At the very bottom of the office chair, wheels are installed, which are responsible for the comfortable movement of the chair over short distances without getting up from it. This option is very convenient to use, because they do not damage the flooring and perfectly keep working hours. But sometimes situations arise when they need to be replaced immediately. Do not panic and buy a new chair, you can cope with this problem on your own.

The wheels of a computer chair, while durable, still have some weaknesses.

The rollers, in contrast to the entire structure, are the holders of the main weight, which rests on the entire product. Even ordinary dust can reduce their lifespan by clogging up the moving parts.

They can break and fall off for various reasons, but the main ones are:

unevenness of the surface on which they ride;
excess of the permissible weight per item;
mechanical damage;
at the end of the service life.

Naturally, it is not advisable to purchase a new chair because of one roller, especially if a person is already accustomed to his workplace. And then a desire arises: I'll take it apart and change these wheels myself! The main thing is to know how to remove the casters from the office chair, and then attach new ones.

A standard office chair is not a complex mechanism, especially when it comes to wheels. It will not be difficult to remove them, and for this you do not even need any tools at hand. The thing is that they are simply inserted into specially made holes in the crosspiece and secured with a slight click.You can fix them yourself, with your hands. The main thing is to make a little effort so that during operation they do not break again.

A fairly common reason for gas lift failure is the bending of the adjusting lever, which does not allow pressing the cartridge valve. In this case, the repair can be easily carried out on your own: it is necessary to bend the lever to its original state.

If the contact is loose and the back does not "hold", you will need to tighten the connection. How to do this, see the video:

As can be seen from the above, almost all work to restore the working capacity of an office chair consists in replacing the failed elements. In most cases, any "handy" man can do such work. Finding the parts you need to replace is quite simple: all components can be purchased in specialized stores or companies that sell office furniture. To complete the picture, we recommend watching a video about repairing office chairs with your own hands:

Computer chair or so-called. the executive's office chair on wheels is often quite convenient for work and just spending time at the computer. However, over time, in such chairs, the wheels can become loose and fall off. This situation is unpleasant, but it is easily and inexpensively treated. Anyone can fix a chair and replace the casters. The tools that you may need are a screwdriver or just something durable and long, which is convenient to pick out, and, possibly, a hammer with which you can drive.

First you need to turn the chair over and pull out the casters. Then you need to remove the plastic covers that cover the metal "cross" (five) of the chair.Further, at the ends of the metal cross there are plastic plugs into which the rollers are inserted. The problem I had was that these plugs inside cracked and broke so that the rollers began to fall out of them. Also, on some rollers, wire rings have come off, which are needed to fix the rollers in the plugs. The plugs must be gouged out with a screwdriver or a standard grubber:

As a result, here is what was removed from the cross:

In the upper row there are plastic covers, in the middle there are plugs, in the lower row there are rollers.

I thought that it would be possible to buy such trivial spare parts for the chair as plugs and rollers in almost any furniture store that sells office furniture. To do this, I walked through the Kharkov furniture oases: the vicinity of the Marshal Zhukov metro station and furniture centers near the station. metro Moskovsky prospect. The result is zero, as an option they offer an assembled cross. In SunSity2 I was recommended to shop / manufacture "EconomTochka" on Kholodnaya Gora. A separate adventure consisted of finding their store in the dark in an industrial zone, talking on the phone, driving a truck ... We must pay tribute to the employees - they were waiting for me and they sold me these penny stubs and videos after the end of the working day. But the conclusion is that the map on their website indicating the locations of the stores should not be trusted.

Here are the old and new cross caps:

The cross is assembled in the reverse order. First, you need to insert new plugs into the ends of the cross. This may require a hammer because the crosspiece may be slightly bent due to weight and time. Then, plastic covers are put on the paws of the cross, and only then the wheels are inserted.

Five plugs and five rollers cost me only 40 hryvnia ($ 5).

Office, it is also a computer chair, is now not only in the office, but in every home. This furniture is very comfortable and you have to pay for the comfort with problems. The chair has a rather complex mechanism, which is subjected to considerable loads and often fails, it often requires adjustment or repair. This article will discuss how to repair an office chair with your own hands, without going to a workshop.

Defective rollers
Repairing the chair cross
Eliminating gas lift malfunction
Repair video

Most often they break: rollers, a crosspiece and a gas lift. In the case of rollers, there are no big problems. The easiest way out is to replace the broken roller with a new one or, if possible, glue it with super glue. Often the cause of a malfunction is debris: threads, hair, etc. Then it is enough to remove the rollers and clean the places of their attachment from clogging. If the wheel axle mount is broken, you may have to replace the crosspiece.

Do-it-yourself repair of an office chair cross is quite possible with some mechanics skills. To do this, you need simple tools and care.

The material of the cross is important - if it is made of plastic, then it is better to put a new one. After repair, plastic serves even worse than new and restoring such a fragile part makes little sense. Pay attention to the type of plastic, it is better to change the polyethylene cross for glass filled with polyamide, since this material is stronger and lasts longer than conventional plastics.

To fix the crosspiece, you need to remove it and this process is not as simple as it seems. This often damages the part itself and the gas lift, especially if you use a hammer or sledgehammer. It is imperative to do this with rollers, since they are often damaged during disassembly and repair. You will need a tool:

It is better to cover the floor with rags or newspapers to protect it from grease. For disassembling tight connections, especially a gas cartridge with a crosspiece, it is convenient to use WD-40 liquid, gasoline or just soapy water. Attention! You can knock down the cross with a hammer only if it is metal; for a plastic one you need to use a mallet. We recommend watching a video of an office chair repair.

We remove the wheels. Usually they are not rigidly fixed and can be easily removed from the mountings.
We turn the chair over; for stability, it must be placed as a seat on a chair so that the back rests on the floor.
It is necessary to disconnect the rocking and adjustment mechanism - piastre. Unscrew the 4 screws securing it to the seat. Then you need to knock it off the gas lift with a light tap, since usually this is a connection without a thread, a tapered one. It is advisable to use a wooden or rubber mallet and not hit the edges of the parts, they are easily deformed. If the connection is "stuck", you can use a special liquid or gently tap it with a hammer.
Remove the gas cartridge stopper. The retaining clip is located in the center of the recess for the cartridge, you need to carefully pry it off with a screwdriver and remove it. Then you need to remove the washer and put it aside along with the clip. Now we disconnect the rod of the gas lift. Careful! Inside the glass, gas lift parts can stick to the lubricant: 2 washers and an oil seal with a bearing. Set them aside and do not confuse with the stopper washer when reassembling.
We knock down the crosspiece. You need to be especially careful with plastic. It is better to hit with a mallet or an ordinary hammer through a piece of wood, with light blows from all sides.

This work must be done very carefully and carefully, with the careless work of a non-professional, the piastre and gas cartridge often break.

To assemble, you need to do everything in the reverse order.

Repairing the crosspiece of an office chair does not always make sense if it is plastic. Glue and soldering with a special soldering iron for plastics do not provide strength, they can only be used to seal small cracks.
You can attach the broken-off foot of the cross using a lining made of metal or plastic. Sometimes they use a plastic tube of a suitable diameter for this and fix it with glue or screws.
For broken or cracked metal crosses, welding is the best option.

Do-it-yourself gas lift repair of an office chair will help to save a considerable amount on the services of a master or buying a new thing. In this case, it is necessary to clearly determine the cause and severity of the malfunction; in many cases, the easiest way is to replace the entire cartridge. The part is not cheap, but new furniture is much more expensive.

When the chair starts to fall arbitrarily and the lift lever does not work, these are clear signs of a breakdown of the gas cartridge. We check it like this:

You need to unscrew the seat and see if the lever presses the cartridge gas valve. In a working mechanism, under pressure, the valve goes down, the gas cartridge extends.
The problem is sometimes a bent lift arm. Then you can gently straighten it to its original state.

To repair or replace the gas lift, you need to disassemble the chair completely. The process is described in the first part of the article (repair of the office chair cross). Installing a new part is much easier than removing a broken one, most importantly, without having to hammer.

It is necessary to determine the optimal seat height for you. Measure and record the result.
It is necessary to remove the crosspiece and disconnect the cartridge from the piastre, after unscrewing the seat.
Then the glass is removed and the parts are sequentially removed: washers, bearings, etc. It is important not to lose them and remember the installation order.
Then you need to pick up a tube or a rigid hose made of plastic with an inner diameter suitable for the axis of the lift. You will have to cut the tube at a comfortable seat height (this was done in the first step). For this purpose, you can use a plated plastic water pipe.
The resulting part is put on the stem and all parts of the chuck are installed in the reverse order.

Once assembled, the chair should behave normally. This method will help to restore the minimum efficiency of the chair and prevent "failures", but the gas lift will no longer work like new. In general, its complete replacement is the best option, for cheap and medium-priced seats, the cost of this spare part will not be high.

Gaslift replacement video:

Rocking mechanism replacement video:

What means can you remove stains and scratches from polished furniture if there are no special means? We will describe all the methods in detail in our article.Means, methods and advice for cleaning upholstered furniture. Your chairs, sofas and beds at home and in the office can always be clean.How to independently disassemble the wheels of a computer chair to clean them from the rubbish that has wound on the bushings?It is believed that most of the wheels of office (computer) chairs are not collapsible, i.e. - unrepairable due to the fact that the fit of the wheel on the axle is done with such a strong interference that one careless movement - and the wheel will have to be thrown away. But this is not entirely true, nevertheless, sometimes it is possible to disassemble them if you work carefully.I am not speaking out of nowhere, not very long ago I also had to attend to this problem - several wheels did not spin, but literally rolled on the floor. An attempt to remove the accumulated dirt (pile from the carpet, hair interspersed with fine debris) with tweezers did not give any result.After scouring the Internet, I managed to find this video, where a young man confidently, with a minimum set of tools, easily disassembles them, cleans and reassembles them.

Most Russians often use an office chair or a computer chair in their home interiors. The convenience of this item ensures the complexity of its design. If some mechanism fails, our compatriots will need to repair their office chair with their own hands, the video instructions for which can be found on the Internet.

It should be understood that you can buy cheap office furniture in Moscow in many stores. However, if for a company such costs pay off quickly enough, and it is ready to change a broken chair for its employee, then for the ordinary population such costs turn out to be unaffordable. For this reason, Russians prefer to renovate an office chair.

The complexity of the repair work depends on the breakdown or damage. If the cover is damaged, a leather chair will require a constriction. Individual cases may even require welding of the elements of this item. Sometimes the owner will have to purchase a new part for the chair. In any case, the cost of the issue of self-restoration of a broken product is much less than a visit to the house or buying a new chair.

Before starting repair work, experts recommend examining the design of an office chair. This can be done on the Rio-Furniture website or other specialized resources. The main thing in this process is to observe the sequence of actions and accuracy when performing various operations. Having studied the schematic structure of any chair, our compatriots will understand the principle of its assembly and will be able to repair almost any product.

The main components in office chairs are:

crosspiece;
metal platform with height adjustment lever;
pneumatic cartridge;
armrests;
backrest angle adjuster;
rollers (casters);
back.

All elements are attached to each other with screws, so you will need a regular and Phillips screwdriver to carry out repair work.

The pneumatic cartridge breaks down most often, so it is important to learn how to repair the gas lift of an office chair with your own hands.Structurally, this element is a two-valve system with air inside. If the office chair does not change its height, the air chuck should be replaced.

Replacement of rollers is also often required. However, experts recommend changing all the wheels at once so as not to disturb the horizontal level. If it is necessary to change the crosspiece, the chair owner may even consider upgrading the existing product, turning it into a more comfortable piece of furniture.

Whatever part of the office chair fails, the element necessary for replacement is easy to find in stores that sell office furniture. Repair work will not take much time, but the restored chair will serve for a long time. It is only important to select the right parts for the chair model so that you do not have to drill additional holes.

Message Vadim »12 Sep 2013, 09:33

Message LesNik »12 Sep 2013, 22:47

Message SergeyPochep »14 Sep 2013, 12:37

Message Igorek »20 Sep 2013, 12:03

Yah? Every store that has a furniture accessories department also sells wheels for chairs. True, as LesNik rightly noted, it is usually not they who break, but the mount in the chair itself.

Message SergeyPochep »23 Sep 2013, 10:31

Yah? Every store that has a furniture accessories department also sells wheels for chairs. True, as LesNik rightly noted, it is usually not they who break, but the mount in the chair itself.

Message Igorek »24 Sep 2013, 08:54

Believe it or not, 90% of the office chairs we sell have the same wheels. Of course, in expensive exclusive options there may be something else, but such things usually do not break for decades.

Message nafnatrix »04 Oct 2013, 01:42

Message serge »04 Oct 2013, 07:20

Message adianon »07 Oct 2013, 21:33

The other day my home computer chair broke down.

Although this chair is already a little old (it is already about six years old), nevertheless, until now, it has served me and my family members quite well. Moreover, about once every six months, I carried out prophylaxis, which consisted of tightening all threaded elements, as well as lubricating the rubbing parts (first of all, the bearing at the end of the gas lift rod).

However, some time ago, I felt that the chair began to dangle and sway from side to side, and the further, the stronger.

Having disassembled it, I saw that the plastic sleeve, which stands in the upper part of the outer gas lift pipe and serves to center and fix the gas lift cylinder, is badly cracked, and several pieces have even fallen off from it.

When I began to pull it out, the part of the bushing, which was directly inserted into the outer pipe of the gas lift, fell apart into pieces, so that only the rim remained intact, that is, the uppermost part of this bushing.

Naturally, I immediately began to look on the Internet to see if such bushings are on sale among spare parts for computer chairs. However, it turned out that such small parts as bushings are not sold separately (at least, I have not found such anywhere).

Nevertheless, I did not want to buy the whole gas lift, because, on my chair, the gas lift still works quite well and without any complaints.

Therefore, I decided to make such a sleeve myself.

To begin with, of course, I wanted to find some similar plastic sleeve, but not finding one, I decided to make the sleeve out of wood. For this, birch wood is best suited, it is strong enough and well processed.

However, the problem here was that such a sleeve is a pronounced body of rotation, so it is best to make it on a lathe.

I don't have a lathe, but using a drill for this would also be problematic, since the part is quite complex - you need to process not only the outer surface of the workpiece, but also the inner one (the hole in the sleeve).

As a result, I decided to go the other way and make almost the entire bushing using hole saws (or crowns) for wood.

And here I must say that I was very lucky, because having measured the inner diameter of the tube into which the bushing is inserted (it is 48 mm.), As well as the outer diameter of the gas lift cylinder, which will be inserted into this bushing (it is 28 mm.), I was able to find hole saws that are almost perfect for cutting the diameters listed!

So, in order to make the mentioned bushing, I needed the following accessories:

Materials and fasteners:

- A piece of a thick, well-dried birch branch, 6-7 cm in diameter, and about 50 cm long.
- Four small screws 3.5x10 mm.

- Drawing and measuring tools (pencil, square and vernier caliper).
- Shiloh.
- Hand saw for wood.
- Electric drill-screwdriver (preferably two electric drills).
- Drill bit for metal with a diameter of 4 mm.
- Hole saw for wood with a diameter of 29 mm.
- Hole saw for wood with a diameter of 51 mm.
- Perforated drill bit for wood with a diameter of 25 mm.
- Clamp.
- Sandpaper.

I must say that above I mentioned only the most basic tools, but in the process of work, I periodically had to use many other tools (for example, chisels, knife, file, etc.), but I did not mention them, otherwise it will turn out to be huge list of tools.

So, first, if necessary, we update the end of the birch blank by sawing off a small part of it with a saw. By the way, this can be done with a jigsaw, but I specially took a hand saw to warm up once again, because it's freezing outside! : e113:

Then we set aside from the end of the workpiece, about 35 mm, (this is just the depth of the hole saw and the length of the lower part of our future sleeve) and cut in this place in a circle, about 5-6 mm deep, with a hand saw with a fine tooth.

After that, we mark the center at the end of the workpiece, clamp it with a clamp and make it along the longitudinal axis of the workpiece, cut it all the way, using a hole saw with a diameter of 51 mm installed in a drill.

Next, we chop off excess wood with a semicircular chisel.

Now we also make a cut to the stop, but with a hole saw with a diameter of 29 mm.

After that, insert a 25 mm diameter perforated drill into the drill, and use it to drill out excess wood from the internal cut.

When the wood has been selected to a depth of two to three centimeters, you can again cut the hole with the hole saw to the stop in order to deepen the inner hole.

Then again remove the excess wood with a feather drill. And we do this several times alternately, until the depth of the inner hole reaches 4.5-5 cm. By the way, for these operations it is better to use two drills (if possible) so as not to rearrange the drills every time.

After the bushing is formed with us, you can remove the clamp and finish the surface of the bushing, first with a knife and then with sandpaper.

Now you can saw off the bushing blank.

To give it a neater look, you can chop off excess wood from the top ledge of the bushing with a chisel.

Then we carry out the final finishing with a knife and sandpaper.

And now our sleeve is finally ready!

Now it is necessary to make a slight revision of the tube of the computer chair, into which our sleeve will be inserted, namely, drill holes in it for the screws.

Therefore, with a drill with a diameter of 4 mm, we drill four holes in the tube for screws.

Then we remove the chamfers, and at the same time the burrs from these holes with a drill of a larger diameter (8-9 mm.).

Inside the tube, remove the burrs using a round metal file with a fine notch.

Now you need to thoroughly clean the tube from small metal shavings and you can install our sleeve into it.

We carefully hammer the sleeve with light hammer blows.

And then we wrap the screws in the prepared holes for additional fastening of the sleeve.

Now you can assemble the computer chair.

But first, it is necessary to lubricate the thrust bearing well with grease.

And, of course, the inner surface of our sleeve.

Well, now, we finally assemble the chair, that is, we put the bearing on the gas lift rod, then we put the crosspiece with the tube and the sleeve on the gas lift cylinder, we install the outer washer and the fixing washer-latch.

And this is what our chair looks like with a new wooden bushing.

After testing the chair, it turned out that everything is functioning normally, the chair rotates, the height of the chair lift is adjustable without problems, there are no special backlashes.

In general, I don’t know what will happen next, but so far everything is working fine!

Although I must say that theoretically, a wooden sleeve should not be inferior in strength to a plastic one. Therefore, I hope that it will work long enough.

In my opinion, the only thing that can happen to this sleeve is that it can crack. But I think that in this case, too, it will not lose its performance, and to strengthen it, it will be possible to simply fasten its upper part with a clamp or even just wrap it tightly with electrical tape.

Well, however, it will be seen further!

Well, that's all for me!
Everyone, so far, and reliable and durable homemade products!

Video (click to play).

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