replacing castors on desk chair

brute force?

Jim K

Probably with some difficulty in your case.

Normally these are held in with a spring clip and you need to yank the castor off with a bit of force.

If there is something left to get hold of - try a pair of pliers. if that fails, try mole grips or clamping the stub in a heavy engineer's vice and tapping the leg of the chair away with a sharp hit with something.

Sometimes they almost fall out, sometimes they are clipped in tight.

The stems have longitudinal grooves and are pressed into the aluminium. The only way is by heating the aluminium (with a gas torch) which may damage the finish. Even then some force might be needed. I should check replacements can be got first.

I don't know, but shortly after I did replace some the whol leg came away at the weld in the middle. So much for robust, no I know why they all have five feet!

Brian

have you seen it then?

Jim K

In article , Tim Watts writes

Oh no I can impart quite a lot of brute force if necessary and the job looks like it won't go my way :)

Thanks for tips, the spoke is quite a long way out, the castors plastic bit snapped off on two but I'll have a go with a mole wrench.

In article , harry writes

Oh, no, I bought the replacements, I thought they were going to arrive without the spoke so i could just ram them on :)

Another option if force fails is to try to drill (say) a 5 mm hole from the top, above where the spike should be. Then insert a suitable punch and hit with hammer.

harry does not need to see it to provide unutterably stupid advice.

When I have done similarly to the OP, it has usually been possible to lever out the old spoke part using either a straight pull by hand or using pliers/mole grips or levering out with a screwdriver from where the spoke enters the socket embedded in the chair. Can take quite a lot of force.

- I meant because you may have had little to get a grip on, not because you are female...

This is why I am not ambassador to the middle east.

In that case, it sounds fairly promising.

Now your next problem will be sourcing a new one - there are a few different standards - best look at the side profile of what comes out and take a couple of key measurements, in particular the stem width at the thickest point.

Cheers

Tim

In article , Tim Watts writes

:)

I have got replacements already, got a set of four over the Internet, look exactly like the ones on the chair at the moment, same fittings and size So just need to know how to get the metal bit out now :)

In article , polygonum writes

Yes agree, one nearly out with a bit of levering, so will continue. i have a habit of imparting TOO much force so going in stages !

Beat me to it ;-)

As the castor pin may only be 8mm, maybe use a 3mm hole if a suitable punch is available (wire nail possible but a bit soft and may bend). Also, give plenty of support to leg before knocking out the pin and perhaps warm the plastic a bit with hair drier of fan heater on low (I think we're all assuming these are plastic legs (ikea?)). Gentle tapping will hopefully do it a little at a time.