Hi Gary,
I made a walnut dining table 3 years ago. The client recently called to tell me there were cracks in the 7/8″ top surface. They had a fire in their house and during renovations the table was stored in the garage (Massachusetts) last winter. When I looked at the table I found that 3 glue joints (yellow glue) were opening-up from the ends of the table. Do you think environmental conditions may have caused the failure? More importantly, how can I repair the opening joint?
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Walnut,
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The answer to your problem is called a spring joint. You need to use them in order to prevent glue joint failure. Particularly when your wood will be subjected to ridiculous extremes of humidity from dry to very dry to almost on fire. Of course environmental issues caused this. But it may be that your joints weren't too great to begin with and all this dryness just made them give up more easily.
It's real easy to pull edges in tight even when there's a hump in the middle of a long joint. But this joint will last only so long when you expose the boards to such changes in humidity. Over 6' or so, a 1/32" spring joint is about right to keep things tight.
Gary,
Thanks for the information. Do you have any suggestions on a repair to this situation. Can it be cleaned out and reglued/clamped?
Thanks, Dan
I wouldn't clean and reglue. I think it would pop again. I'd cut off the bad joint and redo the edges, then reglue. I hope these folks realize that wood put through those extremes of very hot, perhaps very wet, and then very dry will move. A lot. Good luck.
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