I asked Reina to write up what it took to fix up those three manual chairs last week. Reina impressed me a lot by being able to come into the space and self-orient quickly. This is a great skill to have; the ability to poke around and make a sort of mental map of what materials and tools are in a space, so you know where to find everything (or where to start looking!) and what’s available for a project. Reina also would turn to look things up online if it was not easy to figure out. Another super impressive thing was persistence in problem solving, with the materials to hand. That kind of stubborn persistence and resourcefulness is great to see!
As an example here’s an assortment of small wheels and even tinier bolts during the search for the correct parts,
Here’s Reina’s report. You will notice that I named our manual chairs after Disney princesses (and one queen?).
Work on Moana
The main things I did were to re-shape those black plastic things that were the wrong size. I used a white marker to trace its shape from the original part, then used a Dremel to cut to the shape, and then used a hand file to further refine the shape.
I then dug around for correct size bolts, and although couldn’t really find ones with the right thread count, I found ones that were the correct diameter so I just looked for different washers and spacers to fill the extra length.
And finally, we changed the axles from a longer one to a shorter one and added a metal washer to make sure we can stop wiggling on the axle.
Elsa
This one was probably the easiest because I didn’t have to go hunting for different bolts. The tube tape was not on, so at first I tried to duct tape it first and then punch a hole and put it on the rim, but it ended up not holding so instead I just duct taped one broken end directly to the rim, stretched it around, and then duct taped the other end
Although the inner tube seemed a little saggy, it didn’t seem popped or anything, so I just used the one that it came with, and the outer wheels could eventually be replaced since it’s a bit old and doesn’t have as much grip on it. But also, I just used the one that it came with on the rim. so all I had to do was re-insert the inner tube and pop the wheel back on the rim.Finally, the axle was not fitting, even though it looked like it was the correct one because it was a Tilite. But the wheel axle wasn’t clicking at all, and I measured it, and it was too short. I searched through the axle bin, and chose two longer ones, and then had to tighten the nut to make it slightly shorter. It’s not an ideal fit, but it still works, the quick release button just sticks a little outside of the rim.
Lilo
This was simple in that I didn’t have to find extra hardware, and the axles were a perfect fit already. The only issue was it had very crusty inner tube and wheel. So it was just a matter of finding ones that could replace it and then popping it back in, which was probably the hardest part. And that’s where I got a little cut, but that’s OK. In the process of trying to get it off the first time, I was doing it on the floor, which wasn’t such a good idea because then it scraped the paint off of the rim, so I learned for the next one to do it over cardboard.Other things:
Both Moana and Elsa still need brake levers. And I guess Elsa could also have the seat wheel guards. But other than that, pretty functional. I had a really fun time fixing those up, I really like the kind of simple mechanisms and putting things together. It reminded me of the mountain bike scooter that I restored this summer. It doesn’t have any motor or electronics, so it was much simpler to disassemble and put back together. But I think the next project trying to get the wheel hub motors to work, or the drive motor, will be interesting. I’d actually wanted to get a scooter, but the person selling it was asking for a lot of money and he bought it broken so the battery needed to be replaced and possibly the motor itself was not working.I also think it would be fun to even work on adjusting the manual wheelchairs more based off of a person to make it fit like you said how we can change on some of them maybe the back rest angle or the placement of the axle under the seat.
I came in afterwards to inventory each chair by adding it to our nascent online system, BARCAT. We also manually tagged each chair with its name, model, and notes on repair status.
I hope you enjoyed this writeup and maybe you, blog reader, will feel moved to come over to GOAT Space to try your hand at fixing things! We also always need help organizing our supplies. You can check our open hours on the Visit page, and drop in to lend a hand any time!
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