Darkoshi

I'm pretty sure I didn't see any chairs like these 3 years ago when I was looking for a good chair on which I could sit cross-legged at my desk.

Pipersong Meditation Chair, Home Office Desk Chair, Cross Legged Chair with Lumbar Support and Adjustable Stool, Flexible Design for Fidgety Sitters - The videos of this one intrigue me much more than the photos.

Cross Legged Office Chair, Adjustable Height Meditation Seat, Comfortable to Improve Sitting Posture, Yoga Chair for Office, Home, Fitness, Ergonomically

I don't think those designs would work well for me, but it sure would be interesting to try them out if I happened to come across them in a physical store.

I can't figure out what size this screw is, and I don't want to have to go to the store to find out.

I think it's metric, because it says 10.9 on the top, and because the socket part of the head takes a 5mm allen wrench. I think it's an M6 because the diameter of the shaft is about 6mm. I'd have said 7mm at first, but apparently M7 doesn't exist. It's certainly not M8, so it must be M6.

It's got 27 threads over a space of about 38mm, which comes out to 1.4mm per thread.
Per the table on this page, apparently M6 bolts don't come in anything over 1mm per thread.

It doesn't seem to match any SAE bolt sizes either.

I can't figure out where I'm going wrong. It's a bolt from a new office chair. There's no reason for it to be non-standard. And it looks totally normal.

I want to get a longer bolt of the same size, so I can slide in a piece of wood to make the back part of the seat raise up higher.

I already went through this rigamarole for my yoga chair, to make it higher. Those screws made sense when I measured them. That chair still needs a new cushion. And preferably new fabric. I just can't right now. And it would probably still be too low for this desk.

I've got so many different chairs in this room right now, and none of them are quite right for how I want to sit. It's ridiculous.

They don't really sell office chairs that are designed for sitting cross-legged.

At work, this year I finally removed the arms from my chair so that they wouldn't keep getting in the way when I sit with one leg crossed over. But the seat isn't big enough for sitting with both legs crossed.

At home, I have an old office chair which was already missing the arms and back due to an unfortunate incident several years ago, when both Qiao and I were sitting in it at the same time. We didn't end up with damage, but the chair did. It's not bad for sitting cross legged, but it's not high enough for my current desk. The seat cushion isn't flat either - it's raised on the left and right sides. That pushes my feet upwards when I sit cross-legged; I think a flat or downward sloping sides would be better.

So I searched for and finally bought a new chair with a wide, flat, well-cushioned seat. That is, in the store it felt completely flat. After assembling the one I bought, minus the arms and back, I noticed that its seat isn't really flat either. It has a slight depression in the center, especially towards the back. And the back is lower than the front.

When searching for a suitable chair, I also checked that it wouldn't have any hardware sticking out from underneath, if I left the arms and back off.

Both when sitting cross-legged and when not, it's easier to sit up straight when the back of the seat cushion is higher than the front. So I've been sitting on the chair "backwards". But in terms of the cushion not being completely flat, I think the cushion itself would feel more comfortable the other way around. Ergo messing around with screws and pieces of wood today.

..

Hah. I was able to get the chair slanted the way I want without needing new screws. After cutting back some fabric from the bottom of the seat to see what was underneath, I saw there were plastic spacers between the seat bottom and the part it connects to. I removed the spacers from one side, which has the same effect as adding the wood pieces on the other side would have had. Except that now, the chair is slightly shorter at its highest height. But I think this will do.

One of the reasons I finally decided on this Yogachair brand of kneeling chair was that it comes in several different pretty colors. Another thing that appealed to me was the curved bottom which makes a rocking motion possible. The design appears to be very similar to the more highly priced "Variable Balans" chair by Varier.

I've been using the chair for about a month now, whenever I'm using my home computer, and haven't felt the need to switch back to my regular chair. Surprisingly, the lack of a backrest does not bother me. I like the yogachair a lot.

Sitting up straight in the chair is easier to do and much more comfortable than in a regular chair. I also like that you can rock the chair even while doing something stationary like typing. I suppose that might be giving my back some extra exercise. You can also put your feet down on the floor and change into various non-kneeling positions.

It is possible to slouch in the chair, and I find myself doing that fairly often - either slouching my back, or slouching forward while leaning my arms against the table.

Due to my tendency to rock in the chair, it tends to move around some, so I have to reposition it fairly often. But it's light-weight (ten pounds), and very easy to move.

Occasionally, I put a folded blanket on the seat of the chair. Doing that increases the angle
of my legs, and gives my back more of a stretch. When I do that, I have to raise my laptop/monitor height a little, as I'm then sitting higher.

I'm 5'4" tall and weigh about 110 pounds. The chair fits me fairly well. I think it would fit shorter people too, but I'm not sure how well it would fit heavier people, or people with longer legs.

The wood parts of the chair are thick and solid. Due to the design of the chair, with no front connecting bar, the knee rests aren't entirely steady - they can wiggle a bit side to side as you shift around. Since I'm a wiggly person, I see that as a positive thing. But it's one reason I'm not sure the chair would be good for a large and/or heavy person. The website says that the max recommended weight is 250 pounds, but I'm not sure that I would trust someone of that weight to safely sit in my chair.

The cushions are firm and comfortable. I'll have to see how well they stand up over time, but for now they are fine.

Depending on how I sit/kneel in the chair, my toes touch the bottom wood rails. With my houseshoes on, my toes can touch the ground This doesn't bother me, but it may be more of a problem for someone with longer legs and larger feet.

The instructions that come with the chair advise you to check the screws every once in a while and to re-tighten them when necessary. The chair has a built-in holder for a small allen wrench that comes with it. Reviews by other people mention that the screws have a tendency to come loose. After using my chair for about 2 weeks, one of the knee pads was a little loose, so I tightened its screw as well as the other screws. It was simple to do. If the screws were to start coming loose often, I might drill some more holes and add more screws. The seat and knee rests are attached with both dowels and screws, so it should be relatively simple to replace the dowels with extra screws.

After using the chair for a month, I haven't noticed any improvement in my back problems. It may be because I still slouch too often. Or it may be that my back problems aren't related to how I sit at all. Nevertheless, I like the chair.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMNtyesb4ag

Besides the other issues I have with acquiring furniture (such as, Do I really want to own more large, heavy things? Is it too heavy to move on my own? Is it both aesthetically pleasing and functional?)

... I also feel somewhat guilty about it. Back in the past, I'd read articles and see TV shows about illegal logging in places like Brazil and Indonesia, and the destruction of forests and habitats, and how a lot of all that is fueled by the demand for wood in countries like the U.S. I try to avoid reading and watching about that kind of stuff nowadays, because it depresses me, but I'm fairly sure it is still happening.

I have not been able to find any furniture which is certified as being from sustainably managed forests, for sale locally. If I did find any, I doubt it would just so happen to also be furniture of the type I am looking for, and which I find aesthetically pleasing.

So even when I find pretty furniture, and I buy it, and I feel excited and happy to have found and acquired it, I also feel guilty, not knowing where the wood that was used to make the furniture came from, and what bad things I may be indirectly supporting by my purchase.

Heck, even if I knew the wood came from a sustainably logged and ethically managed forest, I might still feel some guilt... I mean, if I saw the actual trees that were going to be cut down to build my furniture, I'd probably feel bad for causing the killing of the trees. It's sort of like why I became vegetarian - I didn't want to kill animals for food, nor did I want to have other people do the killing for me. Except that with furniture, I am still willing to let other people do the killing for me... sort of.

What is wrong with me, in that I spend a large amount of time thinking about how I will deal with this furniture which is too heavy for me to move on my own, formulating schemes of how, perhaps, it might be possible to move it, if I build some kind of inclined ramp, or if I unscrew the cabinet door from the rest of the piece, or if I wrap around it with rope for me to get some kind of grip on it, or perhaps some kind of pulley-system...

When the obviously easiest way to move it, is to enlist someone else's help? I have someone else's help for now, but what about later? What if I'm on my own, and I want to move the furniture, and I don't have anyone to go to for help? What if I really don't want to ask a favor of anyone?

One of the reasons I even chose these pieces of furniture, is that they come in a bottom part and a top part. I figured that would be easier to transport and move, than a single piece. But the top part is still quite heavy. And it has to be lifted up on *top* the other part.

I wish they made light, nice furniture. Furniture which you can disassemble in order to move it.

But it is all because of some kind of social phobia, a fear of being dependent on others.