glue choices

[Carol Reed]

Post where you are. There maybe someone nearby that can help. Maybe we can help you find that someone. I'd love a shot at this if you were near Las Vegas.

[Steve wade]

what if i created like a long rabbit or lapp joint on the underside and used and new piece there to provide more structural integrity

[Steve wade]

do you know of any nearby my location? I haven't been luccky enough to find any. Mostly oilfield and metal work here

[Rob Keeble]

Steve you can get a great deal of help here but you need to let us know what area you are in. Go to your profile page and add location. You dont need to give your exact address away just the greater area. Also if you could get some better shots and dimensions of the bigger piece there may be members willing to have a go at a replacement piece. It may cost you a few dollars but it would be well worth it given the piece you looking at preserving.

Also any chance of any Amish or Memonites where you are. They bound to know of a buggy repair guy in the neighborhood given their own needs.

In my view you want to do this right to retain the integrity and merits of the overall piece. There is no easy band aid solution for that especially if you unfamiliar with woodworking.

Steve you might want to get in touch with these guys and see if they could provide a replacement part.

http://www.liveryone.net/parts.shtml

http://www.oxbowwagonsandcoaches.com...cle-parts.html

[Dennis Ulrich]

what if i created like a long rabbit or lapp joint on the underside and used and new piece there to provide more structural integrity

I once made a structural repair to a chair by drilling a couple of holes about 4" deep in each piece and inserting steel rods into the holes then smeared the rods with epoxie and slid the pieces together. It's still holding more than 30 years later. The obvious trick is getting the alignment right. I think that for any repair to be sucessful it will have to have some sort of metal splint.

[Steve wade]

thanks for the website

[Rob Keeble]

Steve you got me fascinated by this dilema of yours. I have been looking at images on google of these doctors buggys but cannot place your pics. Do you think you could give us an overall pic so we can see where the damaged parts really fit in. It looks like there is some steam bending in your parts but i cannot see that on the buggies i have been looking at.

[Steve wade]

I will try tomorrow. It is very unique. supposedly the suspension on this is very rare as well

[Ryan Mooney]

Looks like the breaks are in a relatively straight part of the piece. You could splice in a new piece. If I was to do that I would cut the old piece at about a 60d angle back and cut the new piece to match but oversize and then shape to match. If its sufficiently oversized you can fair in a slight curve. This won't be as strong as a full replacement obviously and may or may not work if there is any significant stress on the piece.

It is possible (and even probable) that the pieces were shaped mostly by cutting. We had a couple of carts, a sleigh and a few other horse drawn pieces when I was a kid. The shafts and other long or very curved pieces pieces we (well my dad really ) replaced were rough cut from a tree that had a closely matching curve when green and then lashed to a form and left to dry for a year or so and then refined. The key was finding an original piece that had a close enough curve in it to begin with. The shorter pieces were just cut from an already dry piece that had a close enough grain.

I'd agree that there is no way you can glue them back as is and have any hope of it holding. Gluing end grain has no strength, and even if it did the wood looks to have gotten a bit weak/possibly rotten a little around the hole.

If you can get someone local familiar with repairing this sort of thing to help it would be good though, there can be some subtleties in stress on some of the parts that aren't initially obvious...

[Steve wade]

here is one pic of buggy