There seems to be a lot of these chair cylinder videos. This one seems well done. However, as a caution I will share my experience here as I have with some of the other videos. I had to resort to methods not outlined in this video: I just did my older high quality desk chair. It took 2 days. The bottom wheel carriage came off easily enough I guess, but then...... I soaked the part that goes to seat portion in Wd and PB Blaster, No Joy, and I have a large 18" pipe wrench. Tried it again after soaking overnight. No joy. I was putting so much force on it I was afraid I'd break the rest of the chair. I then removed the seat adjustment mechanism from the seat and put it in a large heavy vice so I could hold it in place better. No joy. Then I clamped the cylinder in the vice and tried a HF hydraulic spreader to try and pop it off while wailing on it first with a dead blow, then with a 4lb sledge, but no joy. I went back to the internet thinking maybe mine was bolted or welded on, but no. Finally, I took some of the more fragile parts off of the mechanism took it out side, placed a board on the ground and placed it on the board and then used the front end loader on my tractor to hold it down. I then put a 4' cheater pipe on the pipe wrench handle and gave it everything I had. Joy!!! My chair is now fixed and works great again. All you need is a tractor with a front end loader and a few thousand pounds of weight and 4' pipe wrench and 220lbs of fat man and it comes right off as easy as pie.

I know this is an old video, but after looking at over a dozen videos that all seemed like they were taking apart a chair that was never used, this is the one that got my chair repaired. Thank you!

Thank You!!! We were at our wit's end. Both ends were stuck good. I bought a gaming chair used for $20. Thought I got a great deal, but the gas cylinder was shot. Since all the screws were stripped on the chair base and there were dings all over both parts, I'm thinking the owner tried to do the same thing we did, and when nothing would come off, he sold it to me, the sucker. Ha! Thanks to your video, we won the war. It took a whole lot of work, WD40, and a mini sledgehammer, but it was finally defeated! We were worried because we couldn't remove the base like so many here said worked due to those stripped screws. But a lot of patience, not giving up, and following most of your instructions did the trick! Who's the sucker now?! A $15 gas cylinder, a lot of elbow grease, and $20 got me a $140 gaming chair!

I found this video and finally removed the damned cylinder. Took 3 people to remove it lmao.

Thank you!! This video was a life-saver. I was already at the final stage (cylinder apart and mechanism detached from the seat) and had all but given up, when I found this video. It gave me what I needed most: hope! Hope that it would eventually come off I was just patient and persistent. It took several sessions of whacking away with the rubber mallet, interspersed with more WD40 and waiting, and it finally came loose.

I was about to give up. Then I watched your video. Took the mechanism off the chair hit it with a sledge hammer and let it fall to a protected carpeted floor. The weight of the mechanism helped tremendously. Thank you from another female DIY’er.

Where do you get these 'friends' people keep talking about??

The oil, a homemade mallet (towel wrapped hammer and held w tight food wiring - wife's idea) and a couple of chairs acting to hold the wheelbase (could not get that unstuck either, also wife's idea) that finally did the trick after the massive wrench had utterly failed, thanks for sharing!

Thank you so much for the tips. Oh my goodness -- I really didn't think I was going to be able to take it off with my chair. I'm a strong guy overall, and what did for was spraying it with wd-40 twice, and then using the wrench multiple times getting as good of leverage and pulling as much force into as I could. Good luck to anyone else with issues. Hopefully my comment might help. If you aren't strong you may need someone who is strong to help unless you have some really specialized tools.

Thank you! I was going to remove my chair's plate because it was cracked and this video helped me to finally seperate it from the cylinder! Sadly I tried the wrench method first which damaged my cylinder but I watched your video and put some cooking oil (I was out of wd-40) on it and smacked the cylinder with a claw hammer which eventually removed it. My advice to anyone trying this is to never give up because you never know how close you are :)

For anyone who's having issues with a stuck base I had one with cracked legs that wouldn't come off no matter how much I hammered at it. I got it off giving it a good spray of WD-40 and letting it sit for a few hours. Then when I put the new base on I put a little bit of arrowshell grease down in the new base before I put it on. When I had to take the cylinder off today to replace it the new base came off no problem. I put some on the end of the new cylinder this time, hopefully it works just as well there.

Great video, thank you. That last step with the WD-40 worked like a charm!

This is really helpful. I'm having a nightmare trying to get my gas stem out. Wish me luck!

Your video is the most sensible and practical of them all and without damaging parts. Thumbs-up!

Life saver! It worked. No friend included! Thanks

So far this is the most helpful video I found. I did everything that you did in the video and beat the living shit out of it and it still is stuck. It would’ve been easier just to buy a new chair.

Thank you for your video Yes, I have been sitting on my chair for years and tried to replace the cylinder which had become dysfunctional. Getting the base off was not too difficult but still raised a sweat hammering away to loosen it. But it came off eventually. Getting the cylinder off the chair mechanism was a different story, as it was a complete horror to get off. I tried a few of the simple things suggested elsewhere but it just would not budge, even using WD and a vise grip and all the power I could muster short of giving myself a hernia or rupturing a blood vessel. I followed the suggestions you made and improvised , and after just a few attempts, it eventually came off. Installing the new cylinder was easy and all is now well. Thanks again.

excellent video!! the very last tip (take mechanism off, wd-40 where the cylinder is flush with the mechanism, and hammer the plate repeatedly) was what worked best for me - since i didn't have a suitable pipe wrench handy, and all the ones we had at home just kept scratching the metal. the only thing i'd add for the last step is to hammer over a towel/cushion so that you don't damage your table when the seat mechanism falls off of the cylinder :)

I struggled for ages with a pipe wrench/WD-40 with no luck. Turns out that holding it by the rod and whacking the mechanism with a mallet did the trick with much less effort than I had spent trying with the wrench!

This was a life saver (the red one)! Didn’t know gore I was going get that apart and this video was a big help

I laughed till I cried! Thanks, I really needed that. Looks a lot like most of my home repair projects.

Thank you! I had been using WD40, twisting with vise grips, and wacking away for 30 minutes. All along the secret is to keep wacking!!

This is the first video I saw and gave it a try ....... and a success !!! , thank you so much.

Saved my sanity! Tyvm. Both bottom and top were stuck.. Took the whole mechanism off... Used an upside down barstool and bottom came off with 2 bangs. Top took over an hour of banging with reapplying wd 40....but finally got it! Thank you thank you thank you!

when the base's welds are broken, you have even more fun.

Didn't see this one in the video or comments but it worked for me - my cylinder was stuck in the steel base (which was already broken). Tried everything here and a few other things like a gear puller, then finally put the cylinder and base in a freezer for a couple of hours, then used a propane torch to heat the base in the area around where the cylinder goes through it. After that it came out on the second mallet blow.

As others have said, this video is old but thank you so much for showing this! I was having a lot of trouble getting the base off. This was so much easier and yes, always use WD40 or something to loosen it up.

Thank you girl. I lost all hope with all these professional pipe wrenches. But a hammer really did do the trick and my chair is fixed

Thank you, your technique was the one that I was able to take out my devil of a cylinder. I can sit comfortably thanks to you

Bought a new heavy duty cylinder and installed it today since my old one was sinking I had to buy generic oil from a CVS that didn't have WD-40 but it seemed to work. I didn't have a pipe wrench (the wrench I had just wasn't providing the grip), but I did have a helper who held the cylinder and chair while pulling as I hit the base with a rubber mallet. Took about 6 whacks to finally get it undone, but it works.

Really a good truck to get out those that are really stuck. Wd-40 ftw

Thanks for sharing your method. It works! I had a hard time removing the upper part. The trick is to remove the lift assembly from the chair, then use WD40 to loosen it and tap it with a hammer.

I have a fairly high end chair and I cannot remove the part that the cylinder goes into. I have used wd40, penetrating oil, a pipe wrench I am hitting with a sledge hammer and the thing won't move. I need help!!!

This was so helpful!!!!!!!!!!! We tried and tried and the other videos were not true to life. Thank you so much for sharing!

mine is this stubborn. i just hope it comes out. i have had the chair for many years and the cylinder is the only thing wrong with it.

Don't give up, there's always hope!

I had wondered about there being some hidden trick to getting that piston out of the chair bracket (without it being an advertisement for a specialist tool which we might only use once). Happily, it turns out my method of "WD-40 and hit it with a hammer" is perfectly valid and I can continue with that. That's actually very assuring! 🥰

Can you tell me please the reference of the cylinder that you have removed? I dont have find the same spare part

If you're trying to remove the chair base (the first step) and aren't having anywhere near as much luck as the video shows, you may need to get more aggressive. I recently replaced a broken chair base for an otherwise fine chair with an intact base from an otherwise broken chair, and for both bases, I needed to use a sledgehammer. (Don't panic, you're not gonna be swinging it with the full concrete breaking might you get from a full overhand swing. The air cylinder is just fine in the frankenchair.) First step, you'll need to separate the base from the seat - having the seat plate still in place (the bit that needed the wd40 and repeated cycles in this video) is fine, but having the whole seat in place makes it way too tall. Then you have to build up a platform on either side to support the base upside down with the seat plate and air cylinder hanging down the middle. Make sure the seat plate is not touching the ground. (I had access to a few off-cuts from large fence posts, not sure what you'll have on hand, but you want to find something sturdy.) This puts the area hammered on in the video pointed straight up. Next step - check if the clip in the base of the air piston extends up above the sidewalls of the cylinder. If it does, you'll need to be very careful, because you want the energy to go into the sidewalls, not into the piston mechanism that clip attaches to. You'll probably want to drill a big hole in a piece of scrap wood - something that will touch the rim but block access to the clip. If it's not, just use the piece of scrap wood in general (you don't want to make the base of the sidewalls bend out at all, because then you'll never get it out - the wood will help even out the force of the blow. Then, hold the sledgehammer in a one handed grip that you can do a controlled swing with. This probably means your hand is about 6 inches from the hammer head, because otherwise leverage will just carry it away. That's fine, a 20 pound hammerhead will deliver plenty of force even without much leverage. Get used to how it feels to hold the hammer this way first, because your other hand is going to be holding the scrap of wood in place, and you do not want to hit your hand instead of the wood. (If you've ever done that with a normal hammer on your thumb, this thing is probably 15-20 times as heavy and therefore 15-20 times as bad.) Then, hold the scrap of wood, and give it a few taps - don't put your back into the swing or anything, let the sledgehammer do its job (being a big enough weight that you don't have to work hard). If that doesn't work, slightly harder taps. Increment gradually, a sledgehammer isn't actually designed to be used for something this precise, so be careful. It will come out way more easily than you expect it to - unless you've been using a sledgehammer your whole life and are used to how they magnify the power of your blows. With both the chairs I did this to, I was beating on them with all my might to utterly no avail. My dad tried as well, and failed, despite him having the scrap wood to build this more advantageous striking platform. Then he brought out the sledgehammer and knocked the first one out with a tap that he indended to be one of those slower aiming taps you do to make sure you have the angle right before you start hammering properly. Switched to the second and it took slightly more work (it's possible the first one had been loosened slightly by his work with the claw hammer), but it came out without much fuss too. And like I said, I've since put the non-broken bits of these two chairs together, and everything works perfectly. The seat is straight and the air cylinder does the pistony things it's supposed to do, so the sledgehammer didn't break anything. Could it have? Certainly! A sledgehammer can reduce anything short of concrete to rubble, given enough effort (and even small blocks of concrete can be reduced to multiple smaller blocks of concrete). But that only happens if you go hogwild with it. Be careful, and use your tools wisely, and they'll do most of the heavy lifting for you. (Metaphorically, anyway. Literally, you do need to lift the hammer to use it.

Got stuck with the upper part. My way not mentioned here: there is a hole on top of the mechanism part. looking into it, you will see the plastic trigger cap and the metal base around it. I got a metal pin, which was the hex wrench left from IKEA furniture, stick into the hole and make sure it touches the metal part and hit the pin with a hammer. To avoid hitting your finger, use a towel to hold it into its position, and bam! the damn old one will fall onto the floor. I just loved that sound. Very happy.

So….maybe some eye protection too, as the pointed end looks like it could jab a person in the eye when it finally comes out.

2024 - this video is soooo helpful. Thank you!!

similar to taking a rust saddle out of the frame, using a car jack works too

0:34 "WHERE'S MY MONEY??!!"

Thanks I’m experiencing the same issue

Thanks

Hello which is the correct part to replace the chair? I have the same cylinder like your chair

FYI: WD40 is not a part breakfree oil. It was designed to displace water and to help protect ferrous materials from oxidizing. Kroil on the other hand is a great breakfree penetrating oil that would have been a better choice here, but it is harder to come by as Kroil is not sold most places.

Hi there my gas cylinder for tilting the chair is stuck how do I fix it

I can also smash monkey wings. Fixing it is another story

when re-installing I would suggest rub silicone grease around the cylinder & base. Any maybe a rubber strap pipe wrench instead of metal.

The only realistic video out there. Mine was so difficult to get out and I had to use a lot of wd-40. The mallet didn’t even work and I had to straight up use a hammer.

Hi - very old video but struggled for 2 weeks looking at other videos to get my failing gas lift from my gaming chair before I saw this - ive smacked the heck out of the mechanism and damaged the surface trying to get it out with wood and a normal hammer before i saw this but its ok - its underneath and out of sight :) - removing the mechanism from the bottom of the chair with the chair base still attached as one of the castors was also broken and holding it upside down like you did, the 'wd40 reapplication and pounding with a rubber mallet until you get it' method did it for me (i dont own a plumbers wrench) - after about 4 applications of wd40 (waiting each time for it to soak in) it took another 4 strikes of the hammer on the mechanism and it just dropped off :) thanks got a working lift and legs with castors from an old chair and Im no longer sinking to the floor slowly every hour when working from home - patience is the key :)

how did you put the pile back in from the bottom?

It helped indeed. Thank you

Thank you, thank you!

It worked! Thanks!

Cool, thanks for the video! After trying other methods and failing, the WD-40 and hammer did the trick :)

I have the opposite problem. It came out from the adjustment part REAL easy. It's stuck to the legs like glue. Hell, the inner piston came out from the outer housing, but the outer housing refuses to budge.

Awesome

Thanks, not yet get my chair unstuck, will uodate

Sadly I'm still stuck at step 1 getting the base off

WD40 and hammering it out worked for me! Thanks!

thanks, will try this. my chair tilt mechanism started wobbling and is driving me nuts but these cylinders wont come off

My column is really stuck and doesn't stick out the bottom like this chair. I use rubber mallet, small hammer and normal hammer. The lifter came out but column is still stuck. I have used penetrating oil but still stuck. I'm trying to avoid replacing the base. Any suggestions?

still struggling to get my cylinder out going to give it another try tommorrow.

My problem is getting the old former section out from the wheel base. I had hard enough time removing the gas cylinder section from the chair base part, which has now been replaced with the new gas cylinder. So currently I have a chair with fresh gas but no wheely base. I'm thinking I'm gunna go buy a rubber mallet tomorrow morning as my regular hammer is missing atm. Anyways any tips or advice would be appreciated.

Mine was split and both parts were stuck. I was using olive oil for both the legs and the base. Had to wait a while. I was worried I would make too much noise and upset my neighbours so I was hesitant to hit it too many times. Both parts finally came out with a regular hammer and a few more hits. Unfortunately that hammer damages things a bit.

i tried all of that but i might to go with the pipe wrench!

Hi what is that specific gas cylinder called? Mine looks exactly like it and I need a replacement

Wd-40 huh. Was thinking of using a lubricant. Wish me luck

She's dressed a little fancy for this type of work.

I am having the reverse problem.. the cylindar won't come apart from my wheel base... I removed the inner cylender and I am just going to replace that...

thank

Just replaced a gas strut on 30 year old chair, I couldn't get anything like it, it is my favourite, so I got a new strut. 2 hours later I had it all replaced. Could not get the base or gas strut out. The clip fell off early in the process so the base had the large tube and the chair had the strut. Turn base upside down over a metal garbage bin and belt the hell out of the tube top, it popped out after a few blows. The strut was impossible, I broke my workbench because the vice broke off and so I had to repair that as well. So I removed the strut assembly from the seat base as you did. It was a type with tilt control as well, so I undid all those bolts as well and swung the bracket holding the strut down so it was 90 degrees and I could access the top of the strut. Same trick again, put a large bolt on top of the strut and knocked it through. It took only three blows to do that, despite having tried wrenches, knocking it sideways etc. The type you have demonstrated does not seem to have access to the top of the strut so I am not sure if you this method.

Wow, I just tried. You really have to hit hard with the hammer.

The takeaway from this is to remove the base with the cylinder still attached, take it outside somewhere, and beat the heck out of it until it comes apart. Use WD-40 heavily and as needed.

Thank you 🙏 I didn’t have a wrench so I had to go ape mode and it worked.

Pipe Wrench works for me for the top part buy twist it out. But the bottom part is another story. Some times works by heating it up but still hard.

This worked for me! Thank you! The thing was damn stubborn!!

Having the base still attached makes it easier.

I just need to get the base removed, it is so stuck that I haven't been able to hammer it out, the metal base has one broken off part and I have a new base I can't use yet

One word: breaker-bar. Seriously, that would give you the leverage you need on the wrench. That's what I did.

I have opposite problem. I can't get the star base off, no matter what. I need to replace it.

Penetrating oil such as Liquid Wrench would probably work better than just plain WD-40.

What if I don't have rubber hammer

Why does this video have so many dislikes? I don't get why troll congregate and dislike blast videos for no reason.

mine is different, the footbase is stuck

i only have a literal, metal hammer 😭

easiest way is to cut it and use a bearing remover

I used the weight of the chair by not removing the base and hitting it with the hammer, it was easier :D

Unless it hasn't been sat in by more than a toddler, wd40 is a requirement. As is at least an hour if you have no help. God help you if it's a heavy duty office chair.. Haven't seen a frigging pipe wrench before or since being a ship mechanic.

If WD40 doesn't work, try acetone.

Welp, done everything on this video and the cylinder still wont come out. I really dont want to either damage the mechanism or spend money on a specialized tool that I'll never use again.

The pipe wrench was the correct method from the start

thanks for tip wd40+hammer worked!

why didnt they just use a pipe wrench...

Take it to pound town

I guess most people never heard of a pipe wrench. They twist out very easy.

Great Video, Thanks! I tried PB Blaster, WD-40 and even soaked the mechanism in a bucket of Ice Water Alas, in the end, I had to use my 20 ton shop press!