Office chair gas cylinder....

[Cozzer]

My super-duper office chair - just over 20 years old - has just started letting me down.
Yes, the gas cylinder needs replacing....or shall I just splash out on a new chair?!
er....No!
I won't!
Over £1300 today, looking at the same model! Crikey!

Measured everything, and ordered the new cylinder.
Needless to say, it won't fit. My fault, not the supplier.
It's a "captain's chair" - it's different because of the arrangement where the column meets the legs.
Anyway, I digress.
I've ended up with a 8" cylinder that has some kind of piston arrangement inside, with an instruction saying "do not open or heat...."
Have to say I'm tempted.
Anybody opened one?!

 

[clogs]

never do it....high press gas and oil.....dodgy....

 

[Sandyn]

I wouldn't open one......not unless clamped very securely in a vice so it couldn't launch itself into part of my anatomy. I have a couple of them in my garage waiting for an idea. Got them in a skip. might use them in a little hot frame with a hinged lid.
Also good for strength training for arms and shoulders.

 

[Tris]

Try SGS engineering in Derby, they may be able to re-gas your old one

 

[Fergie 307]

Find a company that rebuilds motorcycle dampers, they will probably be able to refill your original, assuming it can be taken apart. Your local motorcycle shop will possibly be able to point you in the right direction. Dont try and take it apart yourself. Could be V dangerous and you will very likely wreck it if you havent got the right tools.

 

[Cozzer]

Thanks, all...
You'll be pleased to read that - for once - common sense prevailed, and I decided to ignore the devil whispering in my ear. I shall leave it well alone!
In answer to a few of the suggestions above, it turns out that the original unit/cylinder is actually welded into a particular housing on a captain's job, so the normal replacement process - clouting it with the biggest hammer you can find, apparently - wouldn't work.
I've sort-of solved the original problem by fitting some sturdy pipe around the main upright...I've lost the ride-and-fall ability as a result, but at least it's now "set" for my ideal height.
So into the spares box the new cylinder goes.
Move forward a few years, I'll be hunting for something (that isn't actually in the box, but I'll know I've seen it somewhere recently!) and come across the cylinder again.....
"What the hell is this? Hmmmm....shall I open it? Hang on...."Do not open or heat...." Hmmmm..."

 

[TRITON]

I wouldnt. As above, high pressure + oil = oil everywhere and possibly shrapnel in you, and/or ceiling.

I once tried to open a nail gun cartridge with a hacksaw.

Didn't end well.

 

[Geoff_S]

I once tried to open a nail gun cartridge with a hacksaw.

Why?

 

[TRITON]

Why?

It was bitd(the 80's) when us kids were making explosives from sugar and weedkiller. Black powder was easier to come by than nitrate weedkiller.

Certainly learned a science lesson on friction/heat that day

 

[Richard_C]

It's a "captain's chair" - it's different because of the arrangement where the column meets the legs.

So were you a Captain of Industry? Better by far than a Leather-faced executive. I often wonder how many of those there are because retailers are always advertising special chairs just for them.

 

[Geoff_S]

It was bitd(the 80's) when us kids were making explosives from sugar and weedkiller. Black powder was easier to come by than nitrate weedkiller.

Certainly learned a science lesson on friction/heat that day

Ha, I was doing similar in the late 60’s. It was saltpetre, sulphur and ground up charcoal then, all supplied in a chemistry set I got for Christmas.

 

[Cozzer]

So were you a Captain of Industry? Better by far than a Leather-faced executive. I often wonder how many of those there are because retailers are always advertising special chairs just for them.

Sadly not.
More riffraff with delusions of grandeur!
Actually I'd just moved house and made a few bob out of it, so splashed out on 3 leather chesterfield settees and the aforementioned chair.
Oh....and a matching "slipper" chair to match. How could I forget?! Looked fantastic, but is by far and away the most uncomfortable chair I've ever come across!

 

[FalconFlyer]

I've used these guys to re-gas some car struts. Not the main road dampers, but boot/bonnet etc struts. Might be worth trying?
A British company, and they offer a mail service too.

https://www.sgs-engineering.com/gas-struts/re-gassing-service

 

[okeydokey]

Is it possible to cut out the old one and have the replacement welded back?

 

[stuart little]

Is it possible to cut out the old one and have the replacement welded back?

Welding produces HEAT!

 

[TRITON]

Ha, I was doing similar in the late 60’s. It was saltpetre, sulphur and ground up charcoal then, all supplied in a chemistry set I got for Christmas.

Theres an explosive mixture you apparently we able to make with one of those early kits where once dried it detonated if struck sharply. I guess it was nitrate based, but due to the many accidents they stopped putting the recipe into the instructions.

These days if you were producing that type of thing in the shed, you'd have a dozen armed police, fire brigade and army bomb disposal around your house, with half the area cordoned off

We used to take our low powered air rifles to the park to shoot plastic bottles and the like(Never animals) but these days you'd be arrested at police gunpoint.

 

[Cozzer]

We used to take our low powered air rifles to the park to shoot plastic bottles and the like(Never animals) but these days you'd be arrested at police gunpoint.

At best!

 

[ian33a]

I've bought office chairs from this company in the past and my son has done the same. I'd use them again, in a heart beat.

https://corporatespec.com/
I had a chair where I had tried to refit a replacement gas strut and failed. I took it to them and they explained that I'd bought the wrong strut. As the boss said that they could do the job but were unable to do it (even though I bought the strut), they fitted a set of legs/wheels and a strut from stock for nothing. Not a penny.

They specialise in buying top quality office chairs, refurbishing them and selling them on. As I type this I'm sat in a Steel case office chair from Lehman Brothers, acquired by them after the bank collapsed in London. I've owned it for a great many years now. I think I paid about a third of the price of a new one. IMHO, you really do get what you pay for with office chairs, especially if you use them a lot.

Corporate Spec, in London, are not close to you but they ship all over the country.

 

[stuart little]

Theres an explosive mixture you apparently we able to make with one of those early kits where once dried it detonated if struck sharply. I guess it was nitrate based, but due to the many accidents they stopped putting the recipe into the instructions.

These days if you were producing that type on this in the shed, you'd have a dozen armed police, fire brigade and army bomb disposal around your house, with half the area cordoned off

We used to take our low powered air rifles to the park to shoot plastic bottles and the like(Never animals) but these days you'd be arrested at police gunpoint.

OH! Those WERE thedays!

 

[Terrytpot]

Theres an explosive mixture you apparently we able to make with one of those early kits where once dried it detonated if struck sharply. I guess it was nitrate based, but due to the many accidents they stopped putting the recipe into the instructions.

These days if you were producing that type of thing in the shed, you'd have a dozen armed police, fire brigade and army bomb disposal around your house, with half the area cordoned off

We used to take our low powered air rifles to the park to shoot plastic bottles and the like(Never animals) but these days you'd be arrested at police gunpoint.

Still have scars from the things that amused me as a nipper, what amazes me now though is how few I have and how ridiculously lucky youngsters can be at not doing much worse to themselves or their cohorts