Curbside Chair Repair - Work's Done

or the furniture version of christine...

Alrighty, I got the chair done. (Or as done as it's gonna get.) I've got a lot of pics, so I'll keep the words quick.

When we last left the story, I had glued up the broken arm. That worked out well, but I noticed the rest of the chair was a bit loose. The corner blocks were all loose enough to wiggle. They had been glued and nailed, but the glue had given up long ago. I pried each block loose enough to get some glue worked into the joint. Here's one of them just after I started on it:



And here we are after getting three of the four corners glued and clamped:



Next up was a bit of touch-up. There were a number of chipped and scuffed spots. Here's an example:



A little TransTint Brown Mahogany, some DNA, and an artist's brush handled things just fine:



I wasn't going for perfection. You can see the original stain job was less than perfect. Here's the bottom of the back splat. I left it as-is:



in the end, the dye did a pretty good job, especially after a bit of shellac was padded over it:



The braid trim on the upholstered seat was also coming loose. This corner had been pinned:



And the whole front edge was loose:



I was planning to sew the braid back onto the seat, but after looking at it a bit, I realized it was originally attached with heat-fusible tape...like an iron-on patch. I figured glue was good enough for the original, glue would be fine for the repair. I use Shoo Goo to stick everything in place. I didn't take any detailed pics of the finished results, but it worked great.

[More in the next post...]

[Continued...]

All in all, after the dye touch-up and a couple coats of dewaxed shellac padded on the frame, the repairs came out OK. Not invisible, but structurally sound. Here's the front break:



And the back joint that I doweled:



It's not lined up perfectly, but it is what it is. It ain't going anywhere soon. Here's the plugged dowel...it was pretty easy to get the cherry plug to match the relatively splotchy original stain:



The final result on the frame:



And a couple of the finished chair:



This was a fun little project. It'll be interesting to see what happens when I give it back to the people who threw it away. I did notice today as I drove by the house that there are actually two houses on that lot. They share a driveway to the street, so I'm not sure which of the two houses tossed out the chair. There were no cars at all in the driveway today, and if that's the case when I take it back, I'll just leave it in a neutral location on the driveway and let the residents of the two houses sort it out.

Very nice repair Vaughn. The chair looks great, for what it is. Actually, it's kind of growing on me. Looking forward to the epilog.

ken werner said:

Very nice repair Vaughn. The chair looks great, for what it is. Actually, it's kind of growing on me. Looking forward to the epilog.

Click to expand...

Ditto for me too. Nice repair Vaughn, i hope they take it back in.

Vaughn said, in part: "I'll just leave it in a neutral location on the driveway and let the residents of the two houses sort it out."

Wouldn't that be sort of like the traveling gnome coming back home?

Thanks guys.

Rob Keeble said:

...i hope they take it back in.

Click to expand...

Me too. The chair's uncomfortable to sit in...the back rest apparently was not designed for the human body.

better do it quickly vaughn, they might call the cops

can just see it on tv, the furniture phantom strikes again!!

Hey Vaughn,
What happened when you gave the chair back ?

It's still sitting in my living room. I haven't had a good chance (or in some cases, dry weather) to take it around to a few local shops as a "see what I can offer your customers" sample. After I do that, I'll take it back to its earlier home.

Now now Vaughn, I think you grown tooooo attached to that chair.

or parts of vaughn....

Still in the living room...haven't had the time to or the dry weather to take it back yet. When I've had the time, it's been rainy. When the weather's been good, I've been too busy.

I've decided not to take it to any shops. The glue joints are not perfect, so I'm hesitant to use it as an example of my capabilities. I can always show photos to the local shops instead.

And the photos can actually make it look better than in person.

Ken

ken werner said:

And the photos can actually make it look better than in person.

Ken

Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. I'd need photos anyway to show the broken condition. How about something along these lines...

Vaughn McMillan said:

My thoughts exactly. I'd need photos anyway to show the broken condition. How about something along these lines...

Click to expand...

Obviously, this is your crowning achievement.

It's good to be the king.