On Tue, 18 Oct 2011 01:58:53 -0400, aemeijers
wrote:

On 10/17/2011 10:54 PM, DD_BobK wrote:
On Oct 17, 2:50 pm, wrote:
Jim wrote:
This posting may be a little difficult to present clearly. I
"had" a no-name office chair, at least I did until last Friday
evening. This be a gas strut supported swivel chair that is
height adjustable. Perhaps 10 years old.

While turning slightly I suddenly found myself on the floor. The
top bracket, a box shaped assembly to mate the chair to the gas
strut portion had sheared.

Hate to toss out the chair base/back unit as it is nearly perfect.
Searching online (eBay) for replacement base assemblies show
they run more than just buying a replacement chair.

If anyone here has had similar experiences I'd like to learn some
options.

Take it to a muffler shop and have it welded back together. About ten bucks.

Weld repair can be an option but caution must be exercised...... if
the weld repair is in such a location as to heat the gas shock, maybe
not such a good idea.

Mass market chairs are designed for the average plus some small margin
with respect to longevity.
My neighbor came over the his gas shock chair plus the new seat bottom
bracket.

Unfortunately it looked like the gas shock& seat bracket were a press
fit (or thermal fit) assembly with no way to disassemble.
The chair mfr had given him a new bracket but it looks he really
needed the shock / bracket assembly.

His a big guy..... like 6' 4"& pushing 300 lbs.
The chair was only ~ a year old.


Ya get what ya pay for- there is a reason the big-boxes sell 'office
chairs' for $79-$200 dollars, and traditional commercial furniture
stores sell them for 3x to 5x that price.

Not saying the commercial-grade ones are not overpriced, mind you, just
that it is hard or impossible to find durable ones at a mass-market store.

I've found EXACTLY the same chair at two different "office supply"
places - one at half the price of the other - so that is not always
true.
Same part numbers on the chair parts - one had a "big box" office
supply name on it, the other in a plain box at a "real" office
furniture store. The "big box" name was half the price but you needed
to assemble it yourself (a five minute job) while the "real office
supply store" assembled it for you (but the one on display had screws
improperly assembled etc).

Now perhaps it was not a "durable" chair -by some definition, which
would make it overpriced at one store - perhaps it WAS a durable chair
- which made it one heck of a deal at the other store.

I generally buy mine at auctions or garage sales. and try to keep 1-2
spares on hand, for when the main one gets wobbly. Stand facing chair
place one hand on each arm rest, and rock side to side. If you can feel
slop, move on.