Unfortunately, many of us have had to deal with broken office equipment, including the common problem of broken chair arms. Although you may be thinking that you’ll now need to throw the chair out, thankfully, that is not the case and there is a way to fix it.
Here we’ll run you through a quick and easy method to fixing your broken office chair arm.
A broken office chair arm, although it may seem like a small problem at first glance, can actually render the whole chair useless as you will not have any comfortable sitting positions and may even need to resort to leaning over your desk. However, this can cause serious back problems and so you may need to get rid of the chair.
But can you fix an office chair?
Yes, you will need a metal hanger and some epoxy, along with most tools that everyone has like pliers and a drill. To fix the chair, take the arm off, bend 30cm of the hanger into a staple shape and fix it into the arm. Use epoxy to mend the break.
Obviously, this is just a very basic overview of how to properly fix your office chair arm. With epoxy, you will want to ensure that you take the proper safety precautions and use it correctly so that you do not make the arm worse.
To learn the step-by-step guide read on.
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Table of Contents
The materials that you’ll need
Before beginning to fix your chair arm, it is important that you have everything ready that you’ll need as you will need to remove the arm to fix it. You can’t stop the repair halfway through.
You will need:
- A metal coat hanger
- Epoxy and resin
- Pliers
- A drill (with 2.5mm drill bit)
- Rope
- Screwdriver
You will also need to allow for 12 hours for your chair arm to dry (because of the epoxy) so it is best to fix it before the end of the day when you will no longer need the chair.
The method
Now that you have all of the materials that you’ll need, follow these instructions and you’ll have a working armrest in no time!
Step 1: Take the armrest off
The first thing that you’ll need to do is to remove the chair armrest from the chair itself. This will allow you to put enough pressure on the arm and work on it without the risk of damaging any other parts of the chair and also let you sit in a more comfortable position throughout the repair.
Step 2: Cut your hanger to size
Obviously, we’re not going to adhere an entire metal coat hanger to the chair arm, but you will need a decent portion of it. Bend the wire flat and cut out a 30cm length of metal.
Step 3: Drill the holes
Now you are going to need to take your drill, with a 2.5mm drill bit attached, and drill four holes into the side of the chair arm, in a rough square around the break in the arm.
Make sure that you do not drill the holes too close to the break as this may simply cause it to split further.
Step 4: Shape the metal
Now, taking your pliers, bend the metal into two staple shapes of equal size. Make sure that you measure the ‘top’ of the staple so that it will fit perfectly between the two holes on either side of the break.
Place the staples in the holes horizontally. Essentially, we are ‘stapling’ the chair arm back together.
Step 5: Prepare the epoxy
Mix a solution that is 50% resin and 50% epoxy. Be careful when working with these materials and wear a mask and gloves if necessary.
Apply a small amount of this mixture to the crack in your chair arm.
Step 6: Let it dry
How you’ll need to tie a length of rope around your air chair, using a screwdriver to balance the rope so that it does not become slack.
Leave for dry for at least 12 hours.
Step 7: Remove the excess
Once the epoxy has dried cut off the excess metal from the staples. File if needed.
Step 8: Replace
Now put your chair arm back and place and you’ll have a strong and sturdy armrest that is like new!
Conclusion
If you notice that your armrest is broken follow the above steps to fix it. You must allow enough time for the epoxy to dry so choose a convenient time when you will not need to use your chair.
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