My Office Chair Cylinder Was Dragging On The Floor

Introduction

In November 2019 I noticed a problem when I tried to wheel my Office Chair along the floor. There was exceptional drag. I took a look at the five castors and they were all OK. Then I noticed the Office Chair Cylinder (the tube supporting the seat) had completely penetrated the base. It had gone so far through the hole that it was touching the carpet and dragging along it.

When I sat on the chair all my weight pressed the thin rimmed end of the cylinder into the carpet in an attempt to punch a 40mm dia. hole through it.

This article describes how I fixed the problem.

Naming Office Chair Parts

Since I am discussing the dismantling and re-assembly of an Office Chair we all need to know the names of the parts so that they can easily be discussed. So here is a labelled picture showing the parts of my office chair when viewed from the front:

Office Chair Viewed From The Front
My Office Chair Viewed From The Front.

In addition, the Office Chair Cylinder contains the Gas Lift used to adjust the height and suspension of the seat. See an example below:

A 9 inch (230mm) Office Chair Cylinder whose Gas Lift has a 150mm Rise.
A 9 inch (230mm) Office Chair Cylinder whose Gas Lift has a 150mm Rise.

What I needed To Do

I needed to:

  1. Remove the Office Chair Cylinder from the base of the chair.
  2. Devise a method of stopping it penetrating so far through the hole.
  3. Reassemble the chair with an appropriate adaptation.

Mine is a chair with Arms and a High Lumbar Support System, making it heavy, bulky and high at the back.

To fix the chair I needed to do work on it to remove the cylinder from the base.

The Office Chair Cylinder, containing the Gas Spring, has a tapered end which fits into the slightly conical socket in the polypropylene base and wedges in tight. This tapered arrangement means it always has a tight fit. If it were a cylindrical hole then any play would allow the seat to wobble and rock, which I can assure you is undesirable.

The cylinder is not supposed to completely penetrate the hole in the base but just wedge into it. With a tapered hole the cylinder will always move down until tight. This makes its final resting point indeterminate, and in my case it gradually went too far down over time. The hole in the base had stretched due to my weight (14st at its max.).

Taper/conical joints like this (a taper is a section of a cone) always wedge tight and are hard to separate. So removing it involved hammering the cylinder out of its socket in the base with a lump hammer. This wasn’t an indoor job so I manoeuvred it downstairs and outside.

I needed to have the chair upside down with the base supported so I could hammer the cylinder back out through the hole.

Detaching The Office Chair Seat

I set up both of my workmates1 side by side so I could hang the upturned chair by its base between the benches. Then I realised the top of the back (Lumbar Support) would be resting on the ground and the base would still be up in the air because the chair is so tall.

The four screws holding the seat onto the adjusting mechanism are visible here.

I needed to detach the seat from the Office Chair Cylinder control mechanism. To do this I laid the chair across the benches so that I could access the four screws holding the seat. The screws have a 5/32″ (3.97mm) hexagonal driving hole in the top so they have to be turned with a Hexagonal Drive Bit or an Allen key.

I used a CR-V5/32 Hexagonal Drive Bit in a screwdriver with a hexagonal drive (see below). I removed these screws and the seat. This left me with a much smaller unit to work on.

Hexagonal Bit Screwdriver
Hexagonal Bit Screwdriver
Hexagonal Bit with 5/32" (3.97mm) hexagonal tip (measured across the flats).
Hexagonal Bit with 5/32″ (3.97mm) hexagonal tip (measured across the flats).

Working With The Seat Removed

I mounted the upturned base so that two legs rested on one bench and three on the other. Then with a large block of wood, to cushion the blows, I pounded away at the end of the cylinder using a weighty lump hammer.

As I expected there was no initial sign of movement. The Office Chair Cylinder was well and truly wedged into the base socket. There was also a lot of bounce from the springy legs and bench surfaces.

As I worked four of the castors bounced out of the holes and fell to the floor.

Lubricating The Parts I Needed To Separate

I remembered I had a bottle of specialised lubricating fluid (an emulsion) sent to me as a sample many years ago. It hasn’t been used for much but I obtained it to help plug plastic waste pipes together. I wasn’t sure where it was in my shed, but I had a rough idea and soon found it.

P-80 Rubber Lubricant Emulsion
P-80 Rubber Lubricant Emulsion

Like all emulsions it tends to separate and needs plenty of shaking to keep it as an emulsion.

I put some of this fluid on the work so it would seep between the Office Chair Cylinder and the polypropylene base. Then I took a few more swipes at it which caused a minor calamity. The Gas Spring dropped out of the Office Chair Cylinder and onto the ground.

I didn’t know exactly how it was constructed at the time, but I know now. I had broken a clip which holds the Gas Lift in the cylinder.

The Clip that holds the Gas Lift into the cylinder.
The Clip that holds the Gas Lift into the cylinder.

This clip is equivalent to a Circlip. It rides in an annular groove in the end of the Gas Lift spindle binding the Gas Lift and Cylinder together. In so doing it keeps the ball race trapped between a washer mounted near the end of the spindle and the end-plate of the cylinder.

I had bent the edges of the spring-steel clip with the force of hammering. As a result it no longer sat in the annular groove of the spindle.

For the moment I put the Gas Lift to one side and continued pounding at the cylinder stuck in the chair base. It started to give. I realised it too would soon be heading for the ground. So I put something soft on the ground to catch it and prevent it getting damaged.

How I Effected A Repair

Since the end of the cylinder is conical and wedges into a conical hole, I chose to fit a conical shim in-between the two to take up some space and prevent it penetrating so far.

Making The Shim

I made a shim out of an aluminium soft drinks can. I had a cola to refresh myself first and then cut the can up with the kitchen scissors to make a shim.

My wife has some kitchen scissors which have one smooth blade and one very finely serrated blade. They work well as ‘Tin Snips’ and made short work of cutting the can.

I put the scissors through the drinking hole and cut the edge of the can top, where it joins the side, and then down the side to the bottom. Then I cut at right angles all the way around the top and all the way around the bottom in areas where the side profile is straight. I had to make each cut 2cm, or less, at a time due to the scissor tips fouling against the curvature of the can. This was like peeling the side off. It left me with a rectangular sheet of aluminium with a ready-made curve that could easily be made to fit in the hole.

The aluminium had some irregularities which I trimmed to a neat rectangle by removing all the jagged edges made by the first cut.

Fitting The Shim

An overlap would prevent the shim forming a smooth cone. Then the Office Chair Cylinder wouldn’t fit perfectly and may wobble letting the seat rock.

So I fitted the shim in the hole in the base and let the ends overlap. Then I pressed it against the inside of the hole with my fingers to expand it to its largest possible diameter and see how it fitted. It fitted well. I just had to trim it so that it didn’t overlap. When in position I marked the overlapped edge with a marker pen. I then snipped down a couple of mm that were sticking out of the top of the hole with the scissors. This is where the ends overlapped. It gave a more precise mark than the pen from which to cut from.

I then turned the base over and did the same on the other side. I snipped in line with the first cuts I made. Then I withdrew the shim and cut straight across from one cut to the other at both ends of the shim to trim off the excess. The remaining aluminium was then a good fit in the socket hole without overlapping.

I was very pleased with the whole cutting procedure. The aluminium fitted in the hole well without any overlapping, so I didn’t need to recut it. I put the tube inside the shim and pressed it in while keeping the shim a couple of millimetres proud. I expected it to go in a bit further when I eventually sat on the chair and applied my full body-weight to push it all together.

Refitting The Gas Spring In The Office Chair Cylinder

I turned the Gas Spring and controls upside down and stood it on the floor. I then threaded the upturned Base and Cylinder over the spindle protruding from the Gas Spring.

When the two parts appeared to be together I noticed the Gas Spring spindle extending a centimetre further through the Cylinder hole than expected. All I had on the end of the spindle was a steel washer. I realised something was missing that would fill the unfilled space in the Cylinder.

Locating The Missing Ball Race

ball race
The Ball Race

I went outside with a torch (it was now dark) and yes there it was. A plastic ball race with five ball bearings held in it. I took the Cylinder off the spindle cleaned all gunge and grease off all parts and applied some silicon grease to the washer. Then I placed the ball race over the end of the spindle and lowered the Cylinder over it again.

It’s this ball race which enables one to spin around on an office chair. I can report that the balls were in good shape but a circular groove had been worn in the bottom of the Cylinder. I could see this when I shone a torch down inside it.

Retaining The Gas Lift With A Homemade Circlip

After the Cylinder was placed on the spindle another washer was required. I now had to replace the damaged spring clip with something to hold all the parts together. I chose to make a circlip of steel wire since there was a suitable groove cut in the end of the spindle to hold it.

The wire I used to make the cir-clip came from a heavy duty paper clip like this one.

Paperclip I used to make the Circlip
The type of Heavy Duty Paperclip I used to make the Circlip.

I used leverage available from its length to wrap it tightly in the groove and cut it with wire cutters where the two ends overlapped. I then squeezed it a bit more into the groove with heavy duty pliers. This wire circlip prevented the washer coming off and held the Gas Lift in place in the cylinder.

Refitting The Seat To The Office Chair Cylinder

I was working in the house again now. I took both parts of the chair up to the office while they were separate. Upstairs I placed the seat on the Office Chair Cylinder Controls and (whilst standing on my head in the shadows) I inserted the four securing screws. Then I tipped the chair onto its back so I could see what I was doing. The slots in the steel are damaged by previous screw tightening. This makes it easy to adjust the position whilst tightening.

Testing The Repaired Office Chair

To test the chair I just sat in it. I spun around and observed that the Office Chair Cylinder had settled further into the Base. I checked the Gas Spring and the tilting of the seat. They all worked well.

24hrs later, with more sitting, the Office Chair Cylinder had penetrated the base further as can be seen below.

The New Gap Between the Office Chair Cylinder & Deck Is About 1cm
The New Gap Between Cylinder & “Deck” Is About 1cm

I have taken further action to fix this by tightening a 50mm Hose Clamp around the cylinder. The bottom edge of the clamp is in contact with the chair base. This prevents the cylinder traveling further into the base socket hole.

The Office Chair Cylinder with a Clamp around it to stop it going deeper into the base
The Cylinder with a Clamp around it to stop it going deeper into the base.

If the cylinder had continued to penetrate too far I would have applied a second shim to restrict the diameter of the socket hole a little more.

Time Has Passed

It is now 29th March 2023 and I have had occasion to check the cylinder position and I can report it is still ¼inch above the carpet.

Footnotes

  1. Workmate® – A brand of folding workbench made by Black & Decker.

END OF POST

Comments

26 responses to “My Office Chair Cylinder Was Dragging On The Floor”

  1. Trade Plumbing avatar

    I really need this kind of information and must share it with my circle. Thanks for sharing this with us.

  2. John avatar
    John

    Super useful post! I just purchased a used chair off of Craigslist with this problem

  3. John L White avatar
    John L White

    Great article!

    I was searching the web for this answer and you hit it right on the spot. Good job!

    1. Helpful Colin avatar

      Hi John,
      I’m glad the article helped you. In my case If I did it again I might put two shims in to double the thickness. Still, it doesn’t drag on the carpet or wobble.
      When I know Someone has read a post that I haven’t looked at recently I often check it over to see if there is room for improvement. In this case there was. In particular I deleted a paragraph repeated with a slight change in tense and a few adjustments to pictures.
      Regards, Colin.

  4. Marc avatar
    Marc

    Thank you so very much for this thorough, detailed and extremely informative guide on perhaps a not so common problem and all your time and effort in putting it together to help others who have found themselves in this unique predicament, mine being due to a new cylinder with a much longer tapered area than the original.
    Awesome work.

  5. Johnnie R. Boner @ chairikea avatar

    Really great post. We can learn a lot through this kind of post. Thanks for sharing.

  6. Roger avatar
    Roger

    Nice one Colin, thanks.
    Don’t suppose you’re the patron saint of carpets by any chance?

  7. Virginia K. Bradford avatar

    This Is Virginia K. Bradford. I read your blog post this is a very important solution for us.
    I was looking for in your article. It’s really helpful.
    I have benefited from reading your article.

  8. Shane avatar
    Shane

    You could have bought bigger casters too and saved yourself a lot of time! These are 3″ diameter and work great.

    https://www.casterdepot.com/twcs/twun-75n-g20-bk

    S

    1. Helpful Colin avatar

      Hi Shane,
      An interesting solution. Thank you for suggesting it.
      Regards, Colin.

    2. Scott avatar
      Scott

      Yep, was about to leave the same comment. Love the ingenuity, but revised casters are the way to go. The rollerblade style ones are extremely nice.

  9. Wes avatar
    Wes

    But what’s to stop the cylinder from just continuing on down until it hits the floor again?

    1. Helpful Colin avatar

      Hi Wes,
      A good question.
      My answer: The base is plastic and the hole and cylinder are conical. My weight sitting on the chair is indeed forcing the conical cylinder end into the hole and trying to make it larger in diameter, but the structure of the plastic is resisting that force. Just like a spring balance used by anglers to weigh fish it takes an ever increasing force to stretch the hole more and more. The force within the plastic continues to balance the force I apply with my weight. This will go on until, in this case, the cylinder hits the deck again or the plastic ruptures. At the moment I can get a pencil between the cylinder and the carpet. If it worsens I’ll try adding another shim to improve the situation. I’ve tried to take a picture of it here:-Pencil size gap under chair cylinder
      Regards, Colin.

  10. Kailyn kay avatar
    Kailyn kay

    OMG I have been looking for this exact information since Christmas thank you so much for sharing and explaining in detail so clearly ☺️

    1. Helpful Colin avatar

      Hi Kailyn,
      I presume you’ve got one to fix.
      Good luck,
      Regards, Colin.

  11. Son avatar
    Son

    I thank you for taking the time to detail and illustrate how you tackled this problem. If only more of this interweb were as thorough. Kudos.

  12. Erick avatar
    Erick

    So helpful. Thank you!

  13. Doc avatar
    Doc

    Super, super well done!! This is exactly what I needed, and it wasn’t the fix so much as the mechanism that I needed to understand.

    My chair is supposed to be rated for a person at least 100 pounds more than me, but apparently I use my chair more than Haworth really thought I would.

    I love the chair but this problem had become super annoying. Thanks again for the fix.

  14. Kurt avatar
    Kurt

    The tapered shaft on the piston will tell you how thick the shim needs to be. Measure the piston at the top as it sits, then measure the part of the piston you WANT to be at the top. The difference is the shim thickness needed for the height wanted.

  15. Richard Lympany avatar
    Richard Lympany

    Hey fella what a simple but epic fix, just done mine and its a good 2cm off the floor now. Many thanks

    1. Helpful Colin avatar

      Hi Richard,
      It’s nice to hear of your success.
      Regards, Colin.

    2. Helpful Colin avatar

      P.S. I just checked mine. I’ve never had to redo it. It is only 1/4 inch above the carpet, but that’s OK.
      Regards, Colin.

  16. Richard Lympany avatar
    Richard Lympany

    How long ago did you do it?
    I have been using it everyday for working from home and gaming for the las two and a half years, I weigh 14 st

    1. Helpful Colin avatar

      Hi Richard,
      I have checked the dates of the original photographs and the chair was reassembled on 28th November 2019.
      I have spent an hour or two everyday in it since except when away on vacation.
      Regards, Colin.

  17. Rob avatar
    Rob

    This looks like one solution I’ve been looking for for years. My brother & his friend picked up a chair at a recycler or at the side of the road a few years ago, can’t recall. However, after taking it home, one thing they didn’t realize as they were using it was that that the base hub was indeed hitting & dragging the floor & they did not realize it was gouging up the wood flooring. So I told my clueless brother & I replaced the chair & put this office chair on its side for now (a few years ago now). I am guessing that was the reason that the chair was thrown out by its previous owner. The rest of the chair looks good. My thought is that someone possibly put the rolling base of one chair model to the upper part of another chair model that has a narrower hub/rod. There is no real way I can find the correct piston base fittings as the chair does not have any model numbers on it, or even a brand name. I will try this DIY fix to see if the chair can be salvaged. Thanks. ~Rob 08/16/2023

    1. Helpful Colin avatar

      Hi Rob,
      I’m sure there are some standard sizes available out there.
      Good luck finding one.
      Regards, Colin.

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