Office chair (metal) repair

On Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:30:53 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, "Ivan Vegvary" quickly quoth:

Most I've seen are welded units. For repair, one has to replace the entire shock.

If only one person is using it and is willing to live with it set at a fixed height, you can probably easily figure out ow to pin it at that height with a bolt through a drilled hole, or maybe slip a piece of pipe or tubing cut to the right length over it to keep it up at the desired height.

HTH,

Jeff

Kragen's and various other auto supply stores used to sell a device that is like a short piece of rubber hose with two hoseclamps on it. Place the device on your air-shock and tighten one clamp on the cylinder and the other on the piston rod. Adjust till you get the desired holding power. Engineman

On the chairs I have seen, (Steelcase) they use a nitrogen filled piston very similar to the things on newer cars that keep the hood, trunk or hatchback open. To repair these you replace the whole piston. I would price the piston from the office supply place, and then take the piston to the local auto parts house and see if they have a match at a whole lot better price.

Do nr attempt to open the old piston. At least that's what it says on the outside. I would trust that warning as from the looks of them you would never be able to get it back together and recharge that puppy.

Thanks everyone for the thoughtful reply. Driving a bolt through he assembly to maintain my favorite setting had not occurred to me. But, that's why this group is so wonderful!!

Just don't drill the hole through the pressurized part! Could be 'exciting', as in a ride with lights and sirens blaring. A pipe clamp might be a good thing.

Such drama! Just use a small drill (1/16" or so), with work in vise on a drillpress, wearing a face shield. It'll go PSSSsssss and then the pressure will be gone and you can then drill to size.

Why bother with that? Just remove the device and insert a dummy rod the appropriate length. If you insert a pin into the side of the thin wall cylinder, then all your weight is going to be supported by only a thin section of the cylinder. That seems likely to fail.