Replies

1. 
   JohnWW | Jan 08, 2005 03:21am | #1

   Elliot,

   If the tenon ends are badly crushed and the holes worn oversized, hide glue won't give you joints that last for long, the thick glue lines trying to fill the gaps will quickly break down.  Unfortunately, wood filler doesn't have the needed strength to rebuild the holes or the tenon ends so that hide or most other conventional wood glues would work.

   Epoxy is the best choice for rebuilding badly fitting joints, it has strength even in thick applications, something that almost all other glues lack. 

   That said, the chairs quite probably failed because of poor construction or some basic flaw in their design, which, combined with the wear on the joint elements, will mean that fixing them may be very difficult or impossible in the long run.

   John W. 

2. 
   joinerswork | Jan 09, 2005 11:29pm | #2

   Elliot,

   If you can knock the chairs apart, good and well.  Look for any repairs made with modern glue, and clean it off.  Repair broken or split members.  In re-assembling, be aware that the chairs might  go together more easily in a certain order--for example, doing a sub assembly of the front legs and stretcher, the rear legs and stretcher, then putting them into the underside of the seat, while assembling the side stretchers.

   Joints that are loose, but can't be dis-assembled, (a green wood leg shrunk around a stretcher with a knob on the end of the tenon), can be reglued by drilling a 1/16" hole through the leg into the joint in an inconspicuous spot, and injecting the hot glue into it, till it comes out the joint.  I use a veterinary syringe, with a large needle ground off square on the tip.

   Lots of times the hot glue will re-swell the compressed fibers, and give a decent bond.  Also, regluing the snug joints along with the rickety ones will stiffen the chair up considerably.  But chairs take the worst kind of strain (live weight) and some designs just don't hold up well.  I was once asked by a local restaurant owner to reglue the "captain's" chairs in his establishment, starting with the worst ones.  We picked out 12 or 15, and when I returned them, got another 15.  This continued til he got tired of picking out chairs.  I don't know if we were picking out the same 30 chairs, over and over, or if they all decided to loosen at the same time. It was a busy place, and full most of the time, so they got a lot of hard use.

   Regards,

   Ray  

3. 
   giametti | Jan 10, 2005 03:03am | #3

   You'll want to gently tap the chairs apart. Warm water will loosen the joints if they are glued with hide glue. Alcohol will loosen PVA glues if they were used.
   If the joints are ill fitting you'll need to fix them. A loose dowel joint can be fixed with larger dowels. A round tenon may require filling the oversize mortise with a wood scrap then boring a new mortise in the patch. A loose square tenon can be built up with pieces of veneer. I don't agree with using epoxy. It will fail in reasonably short order and be much harder to re-do.