Removing the star base from an office chair is really simple if you know the steps of how to do that; otherwise, it might seem a little bit difficult if you are doing this for the first time. Through this article, I plan to teach you to do that by instructing you to follow some easy and simple steps.
To find out the details of how you can remove the star base from the office chair in six easy steps, keep reading!
1. Grab Some News Paper & Lay them Out on the Floor:
The office chair base contains lubricants such as grease. The lubricant can make your floor dirty. Newspaper or cloth will prevent your floor from getting dirty. If you don’t put newspaper on the floor you might end up making your floor dirty with grease. Newspaper can help you with that. That’s why I am suggesting this. But this is not absolute necessary for the process.
Of course you can avoid this step if you like. I suppose you will not. So, let’s start with laying some newspapers on the floor. You can put on some old clothes as well instead of putting newspapers.
2. Turn the Chair Up-side Down:
After you have laid some newspaper or old clothes to prevent the grease from making your floor dirty, it is time to take the chair upside down and put it on the papers on the floor. This will make the base of the chair visible and more accessible as well. Now let’s move to the next step.
3. Locate The Holding Clip:
After you are done with putting the chair upside down, now you have to locate the holding clip. Most of the office chairs contain this clip at the center of the base. So you will find it at the exact center of the base most likely.
4. Remove the Holding Clip:
After locating the holding clip, you have to remove it. You can use needle-nose pliers for removing that. If you don’t have pliers, a flathead screwdriver will also do. Now slightly bend the clip and take it off the piston. Be careful while doing this and when you are done with removing the holding clip, let’s move to the next step.
5. Remove the Washer:
This step is very simple. All you have to do is remove the washer from the top of the star base around the piston. The washer on the top of the base will just be simply pulled off.
6. Pull the Star Base Out:
This is the final step. After you are done with removing the washer, you have to turn the star base counter-clockwise and pull it out at the same time. The star base and the gas cylinder will come off at the same time in one piece. The gas cylinder stays hidden inside the base. Also, watch out for grease coating as well.
How to Replace the Star-base of an Office Chair with a New One?
Follow the steps to replace The old Star Base of your office chair with a new one:
1. Start by laying the chair on its Back
Like the previous method, you can use newspaper on the floor if you don’t want to make your floor dirty. Then lay the chair on it’s back or upside down.
2. Hit The Edge:
After you are done with the first step, start hitting the edge on the perimeter at the end. You have to keep hitting the perimeter until the base comes off or it gets separated from the gas cylinder.
This will break the clip, and the cylinder will fall apart.
3. Remove the casters
In this step, you have to remove the caster wheels from your old base. You can remove the casters easily. Try pulling out the casters one by one using your hand. If you find it difficult, don’t worry I will discuss about removing casters afterwards. So keep reading!
4. Snap the Wheels into the New Base:
If you are done removing the wheels successfully, it is time to attach them to the new base. Attaching new caster wheels is really easy. All you have to do is align the casters with the socket of the chair and apply pressure.
If you see that the casters are not attaching with the socket, then try to grease the chair lightly, and after that, try to insert the casters.
5. Attach the New Base with the Chair:
Line up the Cylinder of your chair with the new star base, and then you have to push down. After doing this, make sure your chair is stable. To check the stability, sit on the chair and check if the chair is fixed with the new base correctly and firmly.
How to Replace Office Chair Wheels?
Sometimes it can be tough to replace the casters; you might need a step by step guide to removing the casters while replacing the star base from your office chair.
Here’s a simple step-by-step guide to Replace Office Chair Caster Wheels:
Step 1: Lay the chair on it’s back:
You have to turn the chair on its back or upside down so that the wheels become easily accessible. If your chair is too heavy, get help from someone while doing that.
Step 2: Take The Old Casters Out:
In this step, you have to grab the caster wheels with one hand and the base of the chair in another. Then start pulling out the casters one by one.
Some casters come out easier while others don’t. You will see that there is a grip ring in the stems of all the wheels that keep them in their places.
Just pull the wheels out by your hand. If it doesn’t come out, rotate it clockwise and then counter-clockwise and keep pulling simultaneously.
Step 3: Install New Wheels:
After you are done pulling your old office chair casters off, install your new wheels. It is now moving forward to the installation of new casters. You can pop the new-wheels up in place, but it might need more force than installing old wheels as the grip ring on the new wheel’s stem is totally expanded and hasn’t been compressed earlier.
So it might be challenging to install them on your chair. So put on some grease on the chair’s socket before installing the wheels. This will make things easier, and you will be able to insert the new chair casters without much effort. If this still doesn’t work, then as a final resort, take out your hammer.
Final Words:
Fixing your office chair or replacing any part of it can be challenging if you don’t have any prior experience. So, in my article, I tried to break down how you can remove your office chair’s star base from your chair in simple and easy steps so that you can do it without any prior experience.
I also explained how you could replace the star base and caster wheels as well. I have found a good quality star-base which can carry up to 400 pounds (181 kg). You can check it out on amazon by clicking here.
Thanks for reading!! Before you go, please take a minute to check out my article, Best Ergonomic Office Chair For Back Pain: A Detailed Guide with Pricing
