I’ve been asked to “restore” an antique display cabinet which has a large door with curved glass in front. The door is probably about 2 feet wide by 4 feet high and is currently out of square. This is because the frame of the door, which holds curved glass, is only about 1 inch wide. I’m sure the side opposite the hinges is drooping (about a quarter of an inch) because there isn’t much wood in the joints to fight gravity.
What I’m trying to do is figure out how to solve this problem as I restore the rest of the cabinet (basically, a refinishing job). The only solution I can think of is getting metal angles that I can attach to the back side of the four corners. If I do that, I think the sides of the angles should be fairly long so that as many screws as possible can keep the frame square. But that solution detracts from the “antiqueness” of the piece.
I might be able to put a long screw into each corner, but the screw would be going into long grain and probably wouldn’t hold all that well over time. I could probably put a dowel in the piece that accepts the screw to help that, but I’d end up with two plugs in each corner … again, not truly keeping with the original door.
Any thoughts, suggestions, or help anybody can give me would be much appreciated. (Remaking the door, with wider pieces for the outside, is out of the question. It would ruin the look of the piece … and would be hard to do, as this door is curved on top and bottom and I only have about $300 worth of labor to put into this anyway.)
John
Replies
John,
How are you, I need to send you an email anyway on another subject. Sounds like just about anything will compromise this piece. Assuming the joints have optimal contack area, what about pre-loading it out of square the otherway and regluing? If it's hide glue I'd probably stick with it to ensure repairabiltiy. Otherwise I'd use epoxy.
John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
The more things change ...
We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
Petronious Arbiter, 210 BC
I'm doing well, thanks. My e-mail has changed to
[email protected]
Would you be interested in regluing the door for some walnut in trade? Epoxy would be my choice. You could come up, look at the piece, make a template of the current opening (so you know how to reglue it), and go from there. I haven't really taken antiques apart and am somewhat nervous about surgery of this sort. Or, if you'd like to get paid, come and take a look and give me a quote and we'll see if it can be worked into the job.
John
Sorry, but antiques are not something I'm into. Way too scary.John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
The more things change ...
We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
Petronious Arbiter, 210 BC
John, your door is 'Racking'
Usually narrow stiled doors such as your's, are supported by a wedge installed at the bottom sill so as to support the weight of the door when closed. (Or a tiny bullet catch with strike)
If you have enough room, glue in a thin wedge at the bottom corner of the stile opposite the hinge stile.
Of course, regluing and re squaring the unit should be done first
The tapered wedges should be hard wood and heavily waxed.
If there's enough room, try installing two wedges which ride up on each other. Steinmetz.
Edited 7/7/2005 5:17 am ET by steinmetz
Steinmetz, thanks. Sounds like regluing the door and putting in the wedges will solve the problem. At least that way the wedges will keep the door from racking in the future.
John
GREAT POST!
Now... why did I NOT think of that!.. I knew it but forgot! Dang....
EDIT:: I forgot!
Original post stated.. "restore" an antique display cabinet ..
If it is REALLY old be very careful when doing anything to the doors..
Old glass is very brittle and 'pools' at the bottom after many years (thicker down there) .. If you tighten up something the glass may crack.. Just a thought
EDIT2:: I Know glass does that because I repair/make new really old custom sized doors!
Edited 7/7/2005 2:09 pm ET by Will George
Edited 7/7/2005 2:11 pm ET by Will George
john,
It sounds like the joints at the corners have let loose. I'd carefully take the door apart, and reglue, using the same type of glue that was used originally (most likely it's hide glue). The idea about "pre-loading" the door from a previous poster is not a bad one, but don't overdo it-- be sure the glass will fit back into its rabbet if you do this!
My palms are getting sweaty thinking about handling that curved glass.
Good luck,
Ray
In restoration of these narrow-framed/curved glass doors (and cabinets), consider that the glass itself lends structure/shape to the piece. When the door is closed, the latch stile will rest on the bottom of the case .... thus supporting the weight. When the door is infrequently opened, the minimalistic frame around the glass simply captures it, without the corners coming apart, and the whole thing pivots open on the hinges. This is not a very structural "passage door" .... doesn't need to be.
As you restore the frame around the glass, just be careful not to put it in a bind or let any foreign material into the glass rabbet, as point contact between the glass and a foreign object will surely crack the glass. Repeating .... the glass and the minimal frame work together, and you may have to introduce wooden wedge shaped strips along the glass edge (hidden) to achieve a shape to fit the opening. These were seldom truely square, and most often, the entire case was flexible .... racking noticeably when you move it around. Don't try to immobilize this construction, for surely you will end up binding a piece of glass inserted into the rigid structure you might create.
I just recall getting $25 from FWW for the suggestion to use a small quick-grip clamp (less the pads) to press into place, the tiny finish nails in the glass retaining strips ..... in lieu of driving them with a hammer. Don't recall if they published it! Still looking for one of the old glazers hammers with the pivoting jaw ..... getting off track now!
Good Luck,
John in Texas
John,
Even starting new, with a very stiff wood, it would be just about impossible to make a sturdy, inflexible wood frame of that size with a glass panel.
Trying to repair the frame to make it strong enough is impossible without either adding some form of metal reinforcement or using the glass as a structural element.
Using the glass for support would be the only invisible way to repair the door but it would be a challenging and potentially risky job.
In that narrow a frame there isn't a lot of room for metal repair corners, but they could probably be made to work. They could be rabbetted into the back face of the frame for added strength and faux painted to hide them.
Basically this was a poor design that started sagging the day it was built. You might just explain this to the customer, they may decide that they can live with it, saving you a lot of trouble.
John W.
Some jobs are not worth taking.
Not trying to be negative, just realistic based upon the constraints involved.
Thanks for the suggestions.
John
The first words out of your mouth should have been about the design flaw of the original piece. What you are about to do is take responsibility for somebody else's screw up. And make no mistake, if you present the piece as 'repaired' by Golly it had better be.
I'd pass, if I were you.
I'm going to go over my proposed "fix" before I do it and am going to give a caveat that it won't truly fix the problem, since there was an original design flaw.
John
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