Swivel chair lock?

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fman

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Joined
Oct 18, 2016
Posts
65
Was not sure if I should put this here or in the remodel section so if it needs to be moved then please do. I searched the forum and google and could not find anything. We have a barrel chair that rocks and swivels. The rocker can be locked but the swivel cannot. It annoys the wife that is spins around while driving. I looked for a swivel chair lock and the only things out there are for office chairs and boat seats. The office chair locks are a no go. Just not made for these types of seats. I thought the boat seat would work and purchased it. Well it's a $40.00 waste as it completely locks and is only made to adjust your rotated position and then goes back to a locked setting. I do not want to permanently lock the chair. I know I can easily do that with a couple of bolts. Does anyone have any DIY ideas for locking a chair? I'm hoping for something that would be easily removed once we are camped. I'm almost at a point of drilling a couple of holes and using a pad lock but would like to avoid another key on the ring, but if that's what's needed then so be it. Thanks. 
 
Would something as simple as a bungee cord hold it steady enough?
 
Well looks like it's going to have to be the padlock. Tried the bungie cord and it was not holding enough. Ah, the lock is not that bad I guess. One more key won't kill me. Interesting thing in all my searches the last few days I have not seen a swivel rocker barrel chair that locks the swivel. I would think this would be a common option.
 
If a lock works, and you don't want to bother with a key, try a caribener.
 
Just pulled the barrel chair out of ours. Didn't find it comfortable.  It did have a lock to keep it from spinning though.
Replaced it with a nice comfortable high back leather office chair that takes up less room.  It does not have a lock but I took the casters off and don't use them. We just push it back in the corner and it stays in place on the carpet. Might add a clip or bolt eventually to hold it better when we're moving but so far it stays put and we have more room to walk around it.
 
Old Radios said:
Just pulled the barrel chair out of ours. Didn't find it comfortable.  It did have a lock to keep it from spinning though.
Replaced it with a nice comfortable high back leather office chair that takes up less room.  It does not have a lock but I took the casters off and don't use them. We just push it back in the corner and it stays in place on the carpet. Might add a clip or bolt eventually to hold it better when we're moving but so far it stays put and we have more room to walk around it.
Would you consider selling the locking swivel? I can't find them anyplace. Or what type of chair is it?
 
Here are my thoughts on this:

Put your barrel chair on a surface with enough friction that can prevent it from moving.

Just like what Old Radios said, put it in the corner and you can also add something that can block the area, which the chair covers ? something that would act as a fence.

Also, since you're looking for locks, you can also check out Power Jack Motion: Metal Machining Services' Hardware Locks section, they may have the lock apt for your need. If you can't find any among the list, go ask them if they can do a customized lock for you.

Hope this can help!
 
Take a look here...not exactly sure how much room you have but one of these may do the trick.  Depress the button, the balls collapse and you remove the pin (some have different actuation methods).  Use them all the time for tooling applications so they are very durable.

https://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-stainless-steel-ball-lock-quick-release-pins/=19c7zg4

 
Spring Creek said:
Take a look here...not exactly sure how much room you have but one of these may do the trick.  Depress the button, the balls collapse and you remove the pin (some have different actuation methods).  Use them all the time for tooling applications so they are very durable.

https://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-stainless-steel-ball-lock-quick-release-pins/=19c7zg4
Those are great. Thank you.
 
We had the same issue a while back... my mother-in-law would ride in that chair and it would rotate to where she was facing the rear of the vehicle... only did it when she was in the chair... while it occasionally had its advantages, the situation would make her grumpy, so I had to come up with a solution. I ended up making a hook with length of 10-gauge wire that would keep the chair facing forward (mostly.) It still had a little movement, but worked well enough. I'd simply remove it when we parked.   
 
I ended up going with Thunder's idea. I wasn't able to find any pushpins locally that were not crazy in price. Marine store had them for $25 each. But I did find a regular one at HD at was 7/8 by 1/2. Drilled it yesterday, the chair moves maybe 1 inch to the sides but it's a lot better then the constant turning. Putting in the pin and taking it out very easy. I'm going to secure it to the underside of the chair with some chain or string. Just so it won't get lost. Thanks Thunder, idea works great. It's always the simple fixes that make you smack your head, thinking how could I have been so stupid.
 
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