40 More Handy Tricks

Step 21 Rollerblade Wheels on Office Chair

In the movie "The Falcon and the Snowman" there's a scene where they're rolling around an office really fast. Try to do that right now. Pretty frustrating, huh?
If you're on a hardwood floor, take a close look at it and at the dumb wheels on your chair. The plastic wheels get grains of sand embedded in them, and that chews up the floor.

We live in a degenerate age where office chairs look pretty nice, but they've got cheap hard plastic wheels that wreck floors and don't roll very well.

So I decided to put the best possible wheels on my office chair.
Good low-durometer rollerblade wheels from the thrift store with abec-7 bearings.
It was hard to find some casters tall enough to take the wheels and also fit on the chair.
Man, it's nice. It just feels all rich and buttery. What a smooth ride.

Comments

[zapata94]

Wow, this looks great! I'd like to do something similar, but the base of the chair I've got was not built with casters originally. It's hard to tell whether you just replaced the original casters with the wheels, or if you somehow attached the whole caster to the bottom of the original base. Would love to replicate this look!

[TimAnderson]

I removed the original wheels and put rollerblade wheels in the casters. I used proper bearing spacers and bushings so they aren't side-loaded. It's really a good thing.

[zapata94]

Thanks Tim!

[lordofthedonuts]

I have just dismanteled my little brother's rollerblade, what kind of caster did you use ?

[quasidon]

I was doing a search for roller blade office chair wheels and I found this site.

http://www.coolcasters.com/

Now I can get rollerblade wheels on my office chair.