Excellent - just what I was looking for as a solution to convert a car seat to a comfortable office chair. As the base of the car seat is very deep the normal office swivel bases that I use don't allow me to lower it to a good working height, plus the heavy car seat (not to mention the heavy me on top of it) would be too much for the office chair base. I can definitely work with this.
Great worksmanship but I think the diameter of the ball bearing ring should be closer to the closest edge of the base of the chair. A couple of calculations will yield an optimal ratio of about 0.7 or greater (diameter to base length). Otherwise, that swivel will eventually wobble after a few years. (To calculate, I conservatively assumed a 100lb chair, a 300 lb person with two legs (representing 35% of total body weight (it's less for males)) hanging off one edge of the chair (ie not sitting cross-legged in the chair center), length of the chair base no greater than 3 ft, and the body weight rotating at no more than 30 rpm.) A "heavy duty" ball bearing mechanism in theory could be small, but it wouldn't be practical (or probably available). For example in theory, you could use 1,000N grade steel and put the chair on a swivel base the size of a penny and spin an elephant on it at 5,000 rpm and it would not wobble ...
Thank you for sharing! I have 4 legs that extend out and can be seen from the outside of the chair. Will see if those can be cut off and a plywood disk attached to hide the legs sticking out! Or maybe just cut the legs off so they don't show!!!
Awesome tutorial! But I've been searching for a video of how to turn an upholstered dining room arm chair, into one that has a swivel base, so as to get in and out of a tight spacein our RV. Can you recommend a video for me?
I have a couple of swivel chairs with a base like this but they sit very low. Is it safe to just get a few 2x4 boards and screw them into the solid circular base to help raise the height some? Maybe attach them like skis or do 4 pieces in a square under the circle? Thanks so much!
I purchased the heavy duty swivel from Rockler. They cost a little more ($50) than the author said in the video but they are really heavy duty. It appears to match exactly the one used in the video. I did two heavy chairs following these instructions and they turned out great. @Obsidian Rog makes an excellent suggestion regarding pre-drilling. I had to fuss with a drill bit extender -- wish I'd seen his suggestion.
www.google.com/shopping/product/16182295734992921054?q=swivel+glider+units&client=safari&hl=en-us&biw=414&bih=691&tbs=vw:g,ss:44&prmd=sivn&sxsrf=ALeKk02h1AOSsGGJwBqo28LQZ5jhW49_aA:1613194759565&prds=num:1,of:1,eto:17240705259373744158_0,prmr:1,cs:1 This is a swivel glider I recommend.
Thanks, as an observation, you could have predrilled your 12" board for the chair bottom using the base before assembly, so that you didn't have to align and drill through the completed swivel base, but Thanks anyway , I was just looking for confirmation that this size of swivel was actually man enough for a large arm chair. any chance you could show how that 10" board was it was fixed to the chair frame to take all that weight in the center?? thats what I'm struggling with/weary of as I'm wanting to convert an existing recliner... the four corner feet are spread a LOOONg way apart so im not certain on the best way to span the distance between the feet as it will effectively bee a lot of stress on 'ideally a 2"x2" contact area on the inside corner of each 4" x 4" foot I'd intended recessing or rebating the board into the foot to prevent raising the chair too much with the whole mechanism but fear I'll need metal assistance to span say3'6" x 3'6" corner to corner chair if that makes sense, any pointers or references etc gratefully received
This is an excellent suggestion regarding pre-drilling. I had to fuss with a drill bit extender -- wish I'd seen your suggestion before I did mine! I used the extra heavy duty swivel (just like the video) to do two very heavy/large custom upholstered swivel chairs. Purchased from Rockler. This system works great -- chairs are nicely balanced and the bearings are as described in the video. My chairs had a full plywood (1/2") base frame spanning edge to edge of chair. I used a 1/2" plywood as the 12" piece on top of the original base since 3/4" would have made the chair sit too high off the floor for the skirting. I used 3/4" ply for the 24" diameter base and 3/4" feet. I would suggest using 1.25" carriage bolts rather than 1" to give a little more length for the nut/washer. Good luck!
Where can I find a base to hold two huge beach chairs to move with the sun, they are to heavy to move every day. I want to build something where they can swivel. Thanks
This is the best swivel I know of www.amazon.com/Square-Swivel-Replacement-Recliner-Furniture/dp/B00HFJEZ50 I mostly use this now. www.amazon.com/Replacement-Swivel-Recliner-Chairs-Furniture/dp/B01LWQ0E09/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?keywords=Swivel+Base&qid=1652405883&sr=8-4
