A blessed Sabbath, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Sven!
Lincoln’s birthday, Washington’s birthday -- I remember when we used to celebrate each in its own right. Now we have a generic Presidents’ Day that ignores the history of two great Presidents.
Teh Newlyweds are coming over to watch the Super Bowl and have dinner. It will be good to see how they are settling in.
Thought to do a quick chore -- replacing the gas lift/piston on my office chair. Yeah, it’s a no go on the “quick” thing. It just will not budge. A task for later.
I just did a repair on the lift for my chair. I hate those gas pistons. Most chairs I have had with those start slipping down. The old chairs with the threaded nuts were less convenient to adjust but they stayed in place once set. My chair, which cost over $200.00, started this in late 2021. I called to get replacement parts but they were backordered, I assume because alot of them failed. It took several months to get the parts so I did a temp repair by drilling a cross hole and hammering in a 5/16″ bolt. This worked well enough that I did not bother replacing the parts when they came in. Late last year the bolt started tearing up the place it rested against and leaving scraps on the floor, so I fitted the new parts. Soon it started drooping again. I don’t need any adjustment, I always leave it in the top position, so it really annoys me that an easy adjust feature causes me to have to reset the chair every few minutes. In mid January I ordered a 1 1/4″ sink tailpiece and a 30mm ID thrust bearing. I cut the tailpiece to the length to hold the chair at the top of it’s range and assembled it around the column on the chair. So far it has worked fine. If the 20 gauge tube buckles I will buy a piece of 1 1/4″ pipe and cut that to the right length, it should be more than strong enough. The thrust bearing goes under the tube to allow the chair to swivel freely. So far it has worked fine.
The riser tube was 1.040″ OD so I wrapped tape around it to hold the outer tube concentric so it would rotate properly. If I had machine tools I would just have made a clamp that gripped the riser tube and prevented it from dropping into the lower column but I was able to do this fix with a hand saw and belt sander. If I get a new chair I might make a set like this from the start. Too many of these have had this problem, but I have not found any chairs that don’t use the gas pistons.
I bought it from Staples. They had parts lists online so you could order parts. There was no charge as it was under warranty, but I did have to wait. I only needed the piston assembly but they sent everything under the seat, down to the casters. Sadly, the new one lasted less time than the first. I think my new fix will work. I will use it on any new chair I get.
Good morning, GN -- Happy Lincoln’s Birthday! I’m so old I remember when this was an actual holiday.
A blessed Sabbath, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Sven!
Lincoln’s birthday, Washington’s birthday -- I remember when we used to celebrate each in its own right. Now we have a generic Presidents’ Day that ignores the history of two great Presidents.
Teh Newlyweds are coming over to watch the Super Bowl and have dinner. It will be good to see how they are settling in.
Cool -- is DiL a football fan?
Thought to do a quick chore -- replacing the gas lift/piston on my office chair. Yeah, it’s a no go on the “quick” thing. It just will not budge. A task for later.
I just did a repair on the lift for my chair. I hate those gas pistons. Most chairs I have had with those start slipping down. The old chairs with the threaded nuts were less convenient to adjust but they stayed in place once set. My chair, which cost over $200.00, started this in late 2021. I called to get replacement parts but they were backordered, I assume because alot of them failed. It took several months to get the parts so I did a temp repair by drilling a cross hole and hammering in a 5/16″ bolt. This worked well enough that I did not bother replacing the parts when they came in. Late last year the bolt started tearing up the place it rested against and leaving scraps on the floor, so I fitted the new parts. Soon it started drooping again. I don’t need any adjustment, I always leave it in the top position, so it really annoys me that an easy adjust feature causes me to have to reset the chair every few minutes. In mid January I ordered a 1 1/4″ sink tailpiece and a 30mm ID thrust bearing. I cut the tailpiece to the length to hold the chair at the top of it’s range and assembled it around the column on the chair. So far it has worked fine. If the 20 gauge tube buckles I will buy a piece of 1 1/4″ pipe and cut that to the right length, it should be more than strong enough. The thrust bearing goes under the tube to allow the chair to swivel freely. So far it has worked fine.
The riser tube was 1.040″ OD so I wrapped tape around it to hold the outer tube concentric so it would rotate properly. If I had machine tools I would just have made a clamp that gripped the riser tube and prevented it from dropping into the lower column but I was able to do this fix with a hand saw and belt sander. If I get a new chair I might make a set like this from the start. Too many of these have had this problem, but I have not found any chairs that don’t use the gas pistons.
<Fatwa>
Heh! Mac said thrust bearing!
</Fatwa>
I respect thrust bearings, they have balls.
I have no idea if she’s a football fan, but it will be nice to have them over. Hopefully the game is worth watching.
BTW, I didn’t know that you could even get replacement pistons for office chairs.
I bought it from Staples. They had parts lists online so you could order parts. There was no charge as it was under warranty, but I did have to wait. I only needed the piston assembly but they sent everything under the seat, down to the casters. Sadly, the new one lasted less time than the first. I think my new fix will work. I will use it on any new chair I get.
Chair repair greetings. I’ll follow up on Monday.