How to get a swivel chair to not swivel.

[drcollie]

One of my good local customers ordered a swivel power recliner that had everything she wanted on it, but she didn't want it to swivel. Her husband is elderly and feeble, and she can't have the recliner moving if he steadies himself on the arm to approach it or walk away from it. Can the factory isolate the swivel? Well, no. Trying to get someone at any of these suppliers to do that would be like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube - It's just not going to happen. So I told her I would take care of it for her when it arrived and at no charge. Zip Ties would be the easiest, but over time they will slacken or break. I wanted a more solid modification.

Here's the bottom of the swivel with the two large access holes to the main attachment screws in this photo. The screws are short, I will have to replace with longer ones. But, the original holes are too wide, the swivel would move 1/2" in both directions.



I drilled a smaller hole, ran the longer bolt into the original bracket with washers on each end and tightened it down. It's rock solid now, doesn't move a bit. To restore the swivel, simply remove the long silver screw and reinstall the original short black screw (taped to the bottom) into the large hole again. Now you have your swivel working again.