Can you fix the wheel on my Target office chair?

April 27, 2017 2:18 PM

I got this bungee cord chair from Target a few years ago. Recently one of the casters has decided to fall apart every time I sit in it for more than a few minutes. The casters have two wheels, one on each side. I've included pictures, but it also just looks like the casters on any random chair on Target's website. Do you know how to fix it? Or where I can just buy a replacement for it?

Random details that might be helpful:
- I can't force off any of the other wheels, and I've tried pretty hard, so I think the little wheel is the real problem.
- I guess I could just super glue it?

posted by DynamiteToast to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

Looks like a typical caster, which are pretty well standardized. Most hardware stores carry them, and so does Amazon (though I'm having a hard time finding listings for single casters instead of sets of 5). To replace it, the whole caster unit should just pull out of the chair base, and the new one will just pop in. Just make sure the length of the replacement stem matches your original one.
posted by zsazsa at 2:28 PM on April 27, 2017

Those casters are press-fit. Sometimes they can be very hard to pull off w/o the right pry tool. Don't break the chair (or your arm) trying to get it off. It's telling you it's time for a new chair.
(aka new-to-you used chair).
posted by artdrectr at 2:42 PM on April 27, 2017

It looks to me as if a retaining clip of some kind has slipped off the narrowed neck of the axle the wheel fits on.

You could replace that clip with a small cable tie pulled very tight, or a wire wound around several times and twisted to secure it (such as a twist tie for garbage bags).
posted by jamjam at 2:52 PM on April 27, 2017

You might try this place or this one.
posted by sarajane at 4:35 PM on April 27, 2017

I would try gluing it back on the metal axle. I've heard good things about E6000 glue for heavy duty applications, rather than superglue. ETA: Just don't get any glue in the axle!
posted by purple_bird at 4:49 PM on April 27, 2017

You can just buy new casters searching for "Office Chair Castors". There are perhaps 1 or 2 different diameters of connector. The problem with a breakage like this is that it can end up bending the axle bolster and even with a new wheel, the bogie will turn oddly. A visit to a local thrift shop or used furniture store might turn up a few donor wheels or castors that would fit.
posted by nickggully at 5:28 PM on April 27, 2017

zsazsa: "though I'm having a hard time finding listings for single casters instead of sets of 5)."

One wants to replace the whole set anyways because slight differences in wheel diameter can cause rocking. And it's likely that the fatigue that caused this castor to fail is about to effect the others as well.
posted by Mitheral at 7:44 PM on April 27, 2017

From your second link I see that the axle doesn't go all the way through the wheel as I'd thought, so my explanation is wrong; but I still think the narrowed neck on the axle holds the wheel on, either by virtue of a clip which fits into a slot cut into the bore of the wheel or, more likely, by a circular molded ridge of plastic which sticks out into the bore and clicks onto the neck when you push the wheel on.

If such a molded ridge is worn, broken, or cracked you'll need a new wheel at least, but stick a pointed object down inside the hole to make sure there's not something at the blind end down there which is causing the wheel not to click on completely.
posted by jamjam at 7:46 PM on April 27, 2017

Thanks guys, I didn't know you could just buy new casters, that was an easy enough fix for me. They came in today and the chair is good as new!
posted by DynamiteToast at 10:53 AM on May 3, 2017