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]

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.