This could turn into a real series. My office chair went a little kerplooie. It's an old wooden office chair with casters. The casters are new, but one of the caster sockets had been chewed away by an errant collar. We've got two other similar office chairs around the house. It's a sickness, I admit: bags, pens, gadgets, chairs. All three were in need of some loving.
The mechanism underneath the chair is so simple, and rock solid. I really feel sadness at all the plasticky knobs and levers in a modern chair. Steel and wood for me. So, I set up my workspace down in the basement (yes, it's sitting on top of an empty keg).
I used a two-part polyurethane epoxy to fill in the entire space and belt-sanded it close to flush. A detail sander brought it flush and took care of the overfill around the edges.
I reused the collar, bending each of the teeth back out to better grip the polyurethane, and I forced a tight fit by adding a sliver of bamboo to each socket. I used a mallet and a piece of scrap wood to drive each of the casters in place, and all are very firmly attached, but turn effortlessly.
Back in the office, none the worse for wear.
Thumbscrew 1.0