Welcome to the forum. I haven't specifically hacked a recliner for props, but in dealing with a few old recliners, a couple thoughts come to mind.
You mention 'the lift mechanism' - so are you looking at a 'power lift' recliner, or just looking to grab the part that lifts the foot rest up?
Most recliners I've dealt with are just screwed/bolted together, so not terribly hard to take apart. Though the screws/bolts may have slightly elaborate heads - like torx or allen, so you might need something beyond a typical screw driver. Also, most of the recliners I've dealt with don't seem to be particularly robust or sturdy. Of course they were in the scrap pile, so not heirloom quality. But they seem to get strength from the sum of all parts bolted together... or to say another way, they are engineered to use as little material as possible. So once you remove the mechanism from the frame, it is pretty flimsy on its own.
If you can make it work, then I'd be a bit cautious of putting too much power or repeated movement through it. Expecting it to trigger multiple dozens or hundreds of times a night for the month of October (or longer) might be multiple lifetimes worth of use for a recliner. Though if your use is much less, then that would be much less wear and tear on the mechanism.
As far as hooking up a cylinder - hard to say - sort of depends on what you want, how big the cylinder is and what sort of travel you get. My only thought there would be sure the mechanism isn't getting bound up by the cylinder traveling too far. If things are binding, the mechanism would be much more likely to break.
You mention 'the lift mechanism' - so are you looking at a 'power lift' recliner, or just looking to grab the part that lifts the foot rest up?
Most recliners I've dealt with are just screwed/bolted together, so not terribly hard to take apart. Though the screws/bolts may have slightly elaborate heads - like torx or allen, so you might need something beyond a typical screw driver. Also, most of the recliners I've dealt with don't seem to be particularly robust or sturdy. Of course they were in the scrap pile, so not heirloom quality. But they seem to get strength from the sum of all parts bolted together... or to say another way, they are engineered to use as little material as possible. So once you remove the mechanism from the frame, it is pretty flimsy on its own.
If you can make it work, then I'd be a bit cautious of putting too much power or repeated movement through it. Expecting it to trigger multiple dozens or hundreds of times a night for the month of October (or longer) might be multiple lifetimes worth of use for a recliner. Though if your use is much less, then that would be much less wear and tear on the mechanism.
As far as hooking up a cylinder - hard to say - sort of depends on what you want, how big the cylinder is and what sort of travel you get. My only thought there would be sure the mechanism isn't getting bound up by the cylinder traveling too far. If things are binding, the mechanism would be much more likely to break.
