We can rebuild it....

[davidgillon]

Having bought a set of hex keys (thanks to kaberett for the Gorilla Grip recommendation) I finally took the eBay chair apart and put it back together to suit me (well, as much as a chair two inches too narrow can be made to). Hopefully it'll no longer wheelie if I breathe in too sharply, and both the brakes now grip the tyres, rather than just one and a bit.

Took the upholstery off too, and gave it a bit of a clean. The back definitely seems to have been meant for a chair with a back twice as high, and there was so much dirt and leaf litter in the velcro I think they must have been using it on a farm! I've left the side skirts off for the moment, they were being forced outwards by the cushion I'm using, so weren't really working and I think the extra bulk at the back was making the upholstery fit worse - both they and the back had padded sleeves to go over the uprights, and you could only use one at a time, so the other ended up folded under.

The front castors still need either replacing, or a new set of tyres, but hopefully I should be able to use it now without it wheelie-ing every time I try to go up a kerb cut or wheel up a slope. Which does not help!

And hopefully Sods Law means Wheelchair Services will promptly ring me to say the new custom-built titanium chair is ready to pick up ;)

Comments

[cloudsinvenice]

Here's hoping!

It's nice to realise that wheelchairs can be taken apart - I remember back when we used to rent one from Shopmobility, we were always having to call in with them to get the footrests or whatever adjusted. It's partly that I was still growing for the first few years I used a chair, but for some models they had (and this is going back to the late 90s/early 2000s) I remember there was a specific tool required. The one I have these days seems more amenable to being taken apart...

[davidgillon]

They're still a pain. The changes I made today required two different sized spanners, and two different sized hex keys, they could quite easily have designed it for the same size of hex screw and same size of nut, which would simplify their production and logistics as well as our maintenance.

[capri0mni]

This is why I want a real, working sonic screwdriver -- forget "reversing the polarity of the neutron flow," or erasing the mind-programming of an alien baddie, or whatever --

I want a "Universal remote" for loosening and tightening the screws holding my wheelchair together!

[davidgillon]

Yep, that hex key set is going in my wheelchair bag!

[capri0mni]

Having the right tools for the right job is awesome!

[cloudsinvenice]

That's the sort of thing I don't get - I'm used to products not being made with the consumer's/end user's ease in mind, but it seems odd that they don't even do things in a way that would improve things on their end...

[davidgillon]

After a career in civil engineering, my dad took early retirement and spent a few years advising small companies, mostly engineering and electricals, on setting up proper quality processes - this is back when ISO-9001 was the new big thing. He said that for a lot of them just 'write down what you do' was a huge revelation, so I'm guessing production engineering isn't something a lot of them have gotten around to yet.

[kaberett]

ADJUSTABLE SPANNERS ARE A LIFESAVER.

[davidgillon]

This!

[kaberett]

HURRAH for getting it set up a bit better, and fingers crossed for the new thing. xx

[davidgillon]

I tried it when I went to vote and it still wasn't ideal, so I redid it again last night. Which given I now know what I'm doing only took about 15 minutes. The hubs of the wheels now lie under my hands when I drop them to the sides, which the Wheelchair Services OT mentioned as the standard position they aim for.

I took it into town today and it's much better. There's still one kerb-cut it has a problem with, and which I can do in the clown chair, but I suspect that's only because the clown chair is ridiculously untippy. The cut is on an up-slope and I suspect the problem is the combined angle is well past the allowable 1:12. OTOH I worked out it's easier to turn and go across the side of the kerb-cut, which takes the slope out of the equation.

Delivery of the new chair was supposed to be 65 days, and they said they hoped it would be quicker than that. That's up at the end of the month, so I'll give them a ring on Friday if I've heard nothing. Sod's law says they'll turn around and say "65 _working_ days" in which case they have another four weeks to play with.