Lifehacks Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people looking to bypass life's everyday problems with simple tricks. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
My roller chair is now immovable since there is somehow HAIR, which is about 3 feet (9 dm) per strand, rolled and tangled into all 5 wheels. Below is a picture of the chair:
MSRP for this chair: $625.49
I cannot afford to take it to get fixed, and I don't have tools to take the legs off and clean them. Is there a solution for my problem?
Level 1:
Remove the visible hairs using butter knife on the crevice of the caster on both sides. Kitchen Tweezers are very helpful here.
Level 2:
Use nail clipper/cutter's bottle opener. It will have pointed curve. Insert it into the fissure, Catch the hairs and pluck off the hairs. Keep revolving & rotating the caster strategically by other hand while doing this and this will help the tool to catch more hairs.
Level 3:
Simply cut a section of duct tape and then stick around the cover and pluck off. You can also cut a section of duct tape and fold it back around your razor knife so that it will be like a closed loop ready to stick, then insert it under the wheel cover and pluck off. Reason why Razor knife is because they are very thin.
TIPS:
Do not use sharp knives including razor knife. It will cut the hairs and make it difficult. But if the hairs are very stubborn and likely to tangled like a closed loop, cut the hairs with small manicure scissors or razor blade to break the closed loop.
If you are not satisfied after trying the mentioned workarounds, then I would recommend you to get a screw driver and remove the caster from the chair, then wash on the soap water and apply lubricants.
The example sample images are taken from Google search
If you don't mind the smell, use one of those:
Although being plastic, the material of the rolls is quite thick, and thus doesn't heat up so quickly (Just like the "trick" where you can hold your hand into a candle for a fraction of a second). Just briefly (a second or two) hold the flame inside the wheel and watch the hairs go up in smoke. They burn nicely but smell awfully.
Unless you have really lots of dense greasy hair in there, the burning will not harm the rolls. For added safety, have it burn only for a second or two on its own and then blow it of.
Scrape of the brittle remainders with whatever you have available ( I used a screwdriver ).
Of course do it with all the necessary precautions. Outside, nothing flammable around, a bucket of water in case something goes wrong etc.
I used wooden matches to burn the hair and a pair of tweezers to remove the residue. Then I sprayed DW40. It worked well.
