I Hate Throwing Things Away, Especially if They Can Be Repaired (Including Stroke-Damaged Brains)

I have a lovely genuine leather office chair that I bought for $25 at a thrift store.  No defects in the leather, very comfortable.  Why was it in a thrift store?  A few months later as the weather warmed, the cylinder that supports it at the set height started losing altitude.  It was not often, but sufficiently frustrating that I went looking for fixes.  Many of these chairs can be repaired with a pretty simple replacement of the gas cylinder.  Not this one. 

So I hacked together a solution.  I bought a piece of aluminum tube big enough to go around the tube that attaches seat to base, cut it into two hemitubes, then aircraft clamped them together to put a support between chair and base.  It worked, but was not adjustable.  Worst of all, there was a horrible squeak when I sat down on it.  While my wife has been recovering from surgery, the squeaking became intolerable to her.

I hunted around for someone to repair it.  These guys: OFR of Boise.  I took it in Thursday afternoon, and Friday morning it was repaired for $100.  If that seems steep, take a look at the reviews of similar office chairs on Amazon that are less than $200: bonded leather that must have heard its "safe" word; mechanical failures.  A bargain.  Nice people.