Is your chair missing feet? I'd like to fix it for free.

Announcement:

New service: 3D printed replacement chair feet: bring me your broken or missing chair feet!

If you have a chair that needs replacement feet, drop me a line, perhaps I can help you keep your chair out of the landfill.

Background: 

For the past two years, I have made and sold 3D printed replacement feet for the IKEA Gilbert chair. It has been a fun side project that allows me to prevent broken chairs from going into the trash heap.

Discussion:

I was recently contacted by a lovely person named Joy who saw that I sold chair feet for the IKEA Gilbert chair, and wondered if I could make replacement feet for her chairs, too?

My answer was yes, if your chair feet are easily 3D printable.

Which made me realize that perhaps I should actively look for additional chair feet that can be 3D printed, to expand my offerings.

So, if you have a chair with missing feet and I don't already make those chair feet, let me see if I can help!

Just like I did with the IKEA Gilbert chair feet, I'll both release the files so anyone with a 3D printer can make their own, and I'll sell feet so people who don't have access to a 3D printer can keep their chairs from becoming landfill.

Details of the deal:

1. You contact me here.
2. I'll get back to you via email and ask you to send me photos of your chair's feet, and some rough dimensions.
3. If I think they'll work, I'll ask you to ship me one of your chair feet (or more, if your chair feet aren't all the same for some reason).
4. After a week or so, I'll return your chair foot, plus the 3D printed feet you need (for free).
5. I'll then post the files online (with the creative commons attribution, non commercial license) so anyone can make their own chair feet.
6. I'll sell the feet on the replacementfeet.simpleswitchlabs.com website.

3D Printing Upgraded Chair Feet

Earlier, I designed and printed some replacement feet for my Ikea Gilbert chairs (see that earlier project here).

We recently moved to a new home and we have gorgeous pine wood floors from 1925, and we obviously don't want to scratch them up with chair feet, so I tried putting stick-on felt pads to the chair feet, but they slid off with use, leaving scratches AND sticky messes on our floors.

So, I pulled up my old design files and came up with a chair foot that is:

• slightly larger diameter (~25mm versus ~19mm), to distribute weight over a larger area
• has a lip on the bottom to prevent the felt pads from slipping off
• still compatible with IKEA Gilbert chairs

New feet shown with and without the felt pads

You can download the file and print it yourself I recommend black ABS plastic, 30% infill, and orient the feet with the smaller diameter facing down.

If you don't have a 3D printer handy, I've set up a store for my replacement chair feet over here (I sell them with the appropriately sized felt pads included).

Look Ma, New Feet!

Update3: The store for these feet and my upgraded feet for Ikea Gilbert Chairs is over here.

Update2: look at the bottom of this post - due to popular demand, we're now selling these!

Update: thanks to Ikea Hacker for the love!

I was refinishing a six Ikea Gilbert chairs with fresh paint and polycrylic when I noticed that I was missing a few feet - they must have popped off over the years.

I went to my local Ikea, but they don't sell these chairs anymore, so the replacement parts are sadly no longer available! ...until I created a 3D model and printed up a batch of fresh chair feet.

They are a little tighter than the originals, which I'm hoping means that the replacements will be less prone to popping off.

Next, I need to paint the replacement feet with a touch of black paint.  ... or, one could just print them in black ABS, or go for a splash of color instead.

I published the design to YouMagine (an object design repository) for anyone else who wants to repair these awesome modern chairs.

Purchase these chair feet right over here!