My wife’s got a dining set acquired from a family member in need of repair. Nothing of real value other than sentimental.
Most of the joints on the chairs are weak making the chairs unstable – joints are doweled and glued. Making matters worse, someone had attempted repairs in the past by “filling the gaps” with glue then pinning the dowels without drawing the pieces together with a clamp or strap.
My question is, how does one go about separating the poorly glued pieces in order to clean them up so that I can properly re-glue and clamp everything back together?
Replies
Hi pino ,
Knock the joints apart a little and cut the dowels with a thin blade maybe a hacksaw blade then drill out the dowels and pull or twist the pins out , clean the old glue off and re dowel and clamp her up .
good luck dusty
Duh, why didn't I think of that. Thanks for the ideas guys. I've got a new flushcut Japanese saw that will do just the trick.
Edited 6/23/2008 11:21 pm by pino
pino,
Check out this series of videos http://www.ehow.com/video_2261554_tools-needed-rebuild-old-chair.html
He uses a large rubber mallet - I like a deadblow mallet. In your case the poor repair work of the past will work to your favor.
Once you have the chair completely disassembled be sure sure to check all dowels for loose fit or breakage. If any dowel is even slightly loose, remove it.
To remove a broken dowel, drill a hole completely through the middle of the dowel and use a small syringe to squirt in some hot water to loosen the old dowel.
Replace all broken or missing dowels and clean out all the old glue but be careful you don't enlarge the hole while doing so.
Reglue and clamp.
Regards,
-Chuck
I disassemble the chair by gently using a dead blow mallet (hard hits will break the pieces!), removing all dowels-they are probably fractured by use. I replace the dowels with metal all-thread of appropriate L X D and use a 2 part epoxy. The epoxy must be the 30 minute variety, not 5 min! The epoxy will fill the gaps, and the all- thread will be much stronger than a wooden dowel.
You are correct to use a strap clamp, I use 2 per chair. Check diagonals and ensure all 4 legs are on the floor. Another trick I use is to place a board across the chair once it is glued & clamped. Weight this board with concrete blocks, landscape pavers, etc. this will keep the chair level while curing.
The one thing I know about chair repair is that they are neglected until they are in need of serious repair.
Pete
Thanks for the advice Pete. These chairs recently came to us in a state of disrepair and previous poor repairs. They aren't particularly high quality, but do have sentimental value to my wife, so the extra work you're suggesting is worth the effort.
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