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Office chairs come in different makes, and each design requires its disassembling instructions. Irrespective of your reasons for dismantling your office chair, you have to take caution to avoid damaging your seat.
That said, what is the best approach on how to disassemble an office chair?
Many office chairs are detachable, although some are partially removable. You can take apart an office chair by simply using your assembly instructions in reverse sequence. To remove the arm, headrest, or backrest, you’ll have to unhinge the bolts in most cases.
Table of Contents
Can You Disassemble Office Chairs?
Most office chairs allow you to detach them whenever the need arises. However, you may not be able to remove particular parts in some office chairs due to their attachment to the frame.
As you disassemble an office chair, there are some aspects to take into account. It can help to remember how your office chair arrived. Some chairs come in many pieces. And this means you can dismantle it in the opposite assembly order.
Must-Know Tips When Disassembling an Office Chair
For chairs that come fully assembled, you should determine what parts you can and cannot remove to avoid destroying your furniture. There is probably a reason why your chair came pre-assembled. So, avoid disassembling such chairs unless necessary.
While disassembling your chair, think about your reasons for doing so. You don’t want to dismantle every part of the chair when you could sort your problem with a few detachments. Besides, minimal disassembling reduces the risk of damaging your office chair.
You can always check your manual or contact your manufacturer to establish the parts you can disassemble and which ones you can’t.
Parts connected with screws should be easy to detach from your office furniture. These are usually components like armrests, headrests, and backrests.
Parts attached to your office chair’s mechanism without screws may be challenging to disassemble.
For instance, disassembling your cylinder from the mechanism can be challenging, especially if you have used the chair for an extended period. The cylinder is only connected via tension. So releasing that tension can be difficult, more so after an extended usage period.
You should not remove some office chairs at the cylinder, for example, Herman Miller models. And as you disassemble the cylinder, you’ll need something like a pipe wrench to sever the tension.
Although the pipe wrench is the easiest tool to remove the cylinder from the mechanism, it can damage it. So, consider finding a way to deter the wrench from scratching and gouging your cylinder.
Metal shaving and scratches from your deformed cylinder may get into the cylinder’s housing once reassembled, causing your seat height to go low. Your chair will most likely fail to move beyond the deformities and will become challenging to operate. In this case, you may have to get a cylinder replacement.
If you want to disassemble the cylinder from your chair, you’ll need several tools. Arm yourself with your rubber mallet and a large pipe wrench. For screwed parts like backrests, get an Allen wrench or screwdriver.
How Do You Take Apart an Office Chair?
You should familiarize yourself with various tips on how to disassemble an office chair before diving into the process. These basics will help ensure that you don’t destroy or lose any components of your office furniture.
- Have a sealed case or container with you where you can put all small parts like bolts into. Ensure you keep these parts close to your chair to avoid misplacing them.
- Apply duct tape to your pipe wrench’s teeth to deter your cylinder from getting scratches. However, if you can’t achieve adequate grip on your cylinder, get rid of the duct tape.
- Shield the surface on which you’ll be disassembling your chair from using cardboard or old clothing. This way, you’ll avoid scratches on the surface and your chair as well.
- In case of challenges with the process, you can check your manual for steps to assemble an office chair. Typically, you’ll get instructions online from your manufacturer’s website. Start from the end and retrace the steps until you reach the first procedure.
- To deter your office chair from malfunctioning, avoid taking apart the mechanism.
- Use a rubber mallet to disassemble the cylinder from your chair’s base. If it’s rigid, you can tap its sides to ease its detachment.
Let’s now see the procedure for office chair disassembly.
How Do You Remove an Arm from an Office Chair?
Armrests come with various components. Therefore, ensure you master the order in which you are detaching the parts.
To remove an armrest:
- Take off the armrest’s bolts using a screwdriver or Allen wrench.
- Remove any plates and washers.
- Place all hardware in your sealed case or container and have them close by your chair.
Some armrests allow you to quickly disassemble them by pulling them from your office chair’s arm slot. If you have such an armrest, you can activate your adjustment lever and slide out the arm.
How Do You Remove a Headrest from an Office Chair?
Most office chair headrests are bolted onto the seat. To remove headrests
- Check whether you need to remove tabs or cover plates and do so.
- Use your Allen wrench or screwdriver to detach all bolts on the headrest.
- If you have tabs or cover plates, place them back onto your office chair grooves. Remember to safeguard tiny loose components in your sealed bag or container.
How Do You Remove the Backrest of an Office Chair?
For most office chairs, you can easily disassemble your backrest by detaching the bolts on your chair’s hind. However, some backrests come attached to the frame; hence you cannot remove them.
- Use your screwdriver or Allen wrench to unhinge the bolts at the chair’s back.
- Ensure you also remove washers, if any, and place them in your sealed container to avoid losing them.
How Do You Take the Wheels Off of an Office Chair?
Most wheels get typically popped to your office chair’s base. Removing casters is unnecessary unless you want to replace them or return them to your manufacturer.
To remove the casters:
- Place your chair’s base upside down to have the wheels facing upwards.
- Twist and pull the wheels upwards to detach them from the base.
How Do You Open a Chair Base?
- Position the chair above the protective material on your working bench and in an upside-down position.
- Identify the position of your holding clip. It should be at the center. Remove the clip with a screwdriver or needle-nose pliers.
- Detach the washer on the base’s top.
- Remove the base by turning it anti-clockwise.
How Do You Change a Gas Cylinder on an Office Chair?
Before detaching the gas cylinder from your office chair, remember it can get easily damaged during disassembly.
Besides covering your working table with protective material, do the same for the ground immediately before the working surface.
How do you remove the gas cylinder on an office chair?
- Overturn your chair and place it on the working surface.
- Use your pipe wrench to clamp to your cylinder’s bottom close to the mechanism. Ensure you firmly attach the wrench to your cylinder.
- Turn your pipe wrench until the cylinder becomes loose. As cylinder’s don’t screw on, ensure you rotate it until it comes off your office chair.
- Turn your chair’s base upside down.
- Position yourself a few paces away from the working surface to ensure the cylinder won’t hurt your feet.
- Use a rubber mallet to knock the cylinder from your chair’s base. Tap the cylinder’s sides if it is too firm to come off.
The cylinder should fall on the protective material on the ground. Doing this ensures you do not damage the cylinder’s top making it impossible to fit back into your office chair’s mechanism.
Frequently Asked Questions on How to Disassemble Office Chair
Is it Hard to Put an Office Chair Together?
Of course, you’ll need to reassemble your office chair once you finish the business you were doing, be it repair, realignment, transportation and so forth. It isn’t pleasant if you quickly went through the disassembling steps without much keenness only to get stuck when putting them back.
Nevertheless, putting an office chair together is easy even when you just detached it for the first time. You can use an online or hardcopy manual or retrace the steps you used when disassembling it. It will help to record the process if you think you’ll forget.
How Long Does it Take to Assemble an Office Chair?
The time taken to assemble or dismantle your office chair depends on its design. A chair with some parts attached to the frame will have less screwing and connection points. And that means you will do less work while assembling it.
Moreover, office chairs aren’t too heavy, and you can easily handle the task alone. If you assemble the chair alone, you can take roughly ten minutes to put together an average office chair.
Wrap Up
How to disassemble office chair shouldn’t be a big issue, provided you remember to conduct the process orderly.
And while the process may have a few challenges, always ensure you carefully handle your chairs components to maintain them in excellent condition.
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