How would you fix this?

[John Daugherty]

A friend at work asked me if I could repair some damage to his daughters bed. His mother gave it to her as a gift when she was little. I'm 99% sure it's maple. How would you make this repair?

[larry merlau]

do you have the sliver of wood that got split off?

[John Daugherty]

Good question, and I don't. I asked if he had it and he said it's been gone for years.

[Rich Soby]

your best bet will be to cut in some sort of "dutchman" albeit a very large dutchman. Splice it in such a way as to be as inconspicuous as possible then match the finish.

[Bill Arnold]

This might seem a bit off the wall, but here goes: How about making a cross cut just above the damaged area to a depth equal to the depth of the damage. Remove the remainder of the wood down past the damage with a dado blade on the table saw or with a band saw. Cut a new piece of material to match the area and glue it up. Make a "detail" groove where the new piece meets the old. Next, make a matching detail groove on the other leg, so the repair is less apparent. Matching the finish should be straight forward.

[Bob Gibson]

Don't forget to put the 2 steel rods back in to hold the side frame.
I think that I would use a router to square up the top and rout down to the lowest part of the break then splice in a matching piece.

[Bill Arnold]

... I think that I would use a router to square up the top and rout down to the lowest part of the break ...

Bob, that's a much better idea than mine for material removal. All it would take is clamping boards to each side of the leg to act as rails for a router base, then make passes with a straight bit until the area is level.

[Bill Simpson]

A friend at work asked me if I could repair some damage to his daughters bed. His mother gave it to her as a gift when she was little. I'm 99% sure it's maple. How would you make this repair?

if i were doing it...... a large patch as possible but w/o thr cut line to hide or disguise the patch. the patch shows character, the disguise suggests you are hiding something... imho

one finger typing, please forgive errors.

[Darren Wright]

I'd probably do it as Bob suggested too.

[Jonathan Shively]

Holy cow, crossbred critters!!! That's what happens when the bed bugs cross with the termites!!!!!!!

Remove, level, square and create an area for a patch. Do this to all four legs. Install walnut or some other contrasting wood as a patch. Got to have some bling on this bed!