Need help with chair repair

Rennie Heuer

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Constantine, MI
I've been asked to repair a few chairs for a customer. Essentially, the legs are loose. It appears that there is some joinery between the leg and seat rails other than the angle brace. There are signs of past attempts at repair as well. Also, the angle braces are glued in making a full disassembly difficult if not impossible. Any suggestions? :huh: I have an idea or two, but want to see what the experience of the forum is before I make any moves.

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I'd try to completely disassemble if possible.

You have two points of contact with the corner braces, plus the mechanical fastener. The hole for the mechanical fastener will need to shrink but glued in pieces of wood. The glue contact point will need to be refreshed. Try hot steam in case it is hide glue or white vinegar in case it is yellow glue. Once apart, carefully scrape every vestige of old glue off. New glue does not stick to old glue. And those corners need every square millimeter to be strong. Such is the nature of chairs. Then you can deal with the finish.

Hope you are not doing this as a favor or for a pittance. It will take a bunch of time to do it right.
 
I'd try to completely disassemble if possible.

Hope you are not doing this as a favor or for a pittance. It will take a bunch of time to do it right.
Price is open ended dependent on time to complete. However, taking the entire set of chairs apart might exceed expectations.

Good points though. Will consider this as possibility for sure. How will those grooved connections between the rails and braces become unglued? Seems like steam/vinegar might not penetrate enough.:dunno:
 
Hi Rennie
The best way to repair the loose legs would be to disassemble and clean out the old glue but another option would be to drill holes from the tops of the legs to intersect the mortise and tenon joints and inject a 15 minute 2 part epoxy to fill in where the old glue has dried up and the joints have failed. I have used this method quite a bit with good results.
 
Rennie,
Whenever I repair a chair I always try to totaly disassemble it also. If the pieces are loose after taaking the screws out try gently working the pieces back and forth. Like carol said if it's hide glue steam it. Then clean up the pieces. In terms of refinishing if I had pictures of the whole chair I could make some suggestions.aybe you don't need to completely strip the chairs, don't know until I see the pieces.
 
Thanks Mike & Don. Some taking apart looks like it might go well. Not sure about the rest. Here are some more pics. Looks like fluted dowels for joints.

Refinishing is not in the equation. Only request by the customer is get them to not 'wiggle' when in use. However Don, since you asked, I've included pics of the entire chair so you can get an idea on the finish. I believe the wood is pecan.
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Rennie,
Theres a product I use for jobs like this called Howards Restore A Finish. Just scrape away the clue thats around the joints, light sand and wipe it down with the restore a finish. It will make those chairs look real good. I buy it a True Value.
 
That was easy

Seems my fears were unfounded. The entire thing came apart with some gentle tapping. Now, the dowels that are still attached seem solid. Can I simply clean up the exposed ends and re-glue? What glue? Epoxy? Yellow? What does the FWW brain-trust prescribe?
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...Can I simply clean up the exposed ends and re-glue? What glue? Epoxy? Yellow? What does the FWW brain-trust prescribe?...

Rennie,
What glue was used originally? I'd bet it was hide glue. A little warm water, or steam will tell you.

Do the next repair guy a favor - USE HIDE GLUE! If the original was hide glue, you can simple scrape off as much of it as possible, then add the new. The new and old will melt together and bond well. Luthiers have been using this method for repairing violins for hundreds of years.

Hot hide glue would be my preference, but Titebond Liquid Hide Glue or Old Brown Glue will work well, too.

Whatever you do - PLEASE DON"T USE EPOXY!
 
I'm afraid I must disagree with Jim on the hide glue. The reason why they orignaly used hide glue was it was the best thing available back then. Using hide glue now will insure that there will be another repair in the future. The newer glues such as tight bond will hold until the wood actualy fails and are the proper solution for modern chairs. I always use the best product available and have never had an unhappy customer on all of the repairs and restorations that I have done.
 
I read fluted dowels. Hate those things. Here's why.

The higher ridges of the flutes get crushed upon assembly. The assumption is that there will be room for the glue. There is, but once the moisture from the glue is absorbed by the wood, there is again space! Now the dowel is too small for the hole. No wonder the joints failed. Spiral dowels are a much better choice. Room for glue and no tiny ridges to compress upon assembly.

I'd get them out, one way or another and replace them. In any event, the dowel hole is now undoubtedly too large for the dowel. So you have to deal with that as well. Small pieces of veneer are your friends here.

Glue? Good ol' Titebond. I'm with Don on this one, and for the same reason. Reading between the lines, these chairs are in daily use and not historical museum pieces, right?

Don, I will have to get some of your magic potion for repairs next time I am in the Valley. No True Value around here.
 
I know you already have the chairs apart, but for the record, a little denatured alcohol injected into a joint with a syringe will release hide glue like magic. It crystallizes the protein in the hide glue. It's also good for cleaning hide glue off the surfaces for reglueing. Just be careful to keep it off the finish if the finish is shellac. As for the repair, I would use regular yellow glue to put it back together. I have no use for hide glue.
 
Unless the chair has some historical significance, I don't use hide glue. When a doweled chair comes to me loose, if I can't pull the loose joint apart without damage, I use a thin saw and cut the dowels. Then I drill out the dowels and replace them with new, properly sized dowels. You have two choices - go to the next size dowel, or turn odd sized dowels to fit.

Doweled chairs are factory made and generally have no value except sentimental value to the owner, so I use slow epoxy because it's stronger. I've repaired a bunch of chairs and have had no complaints yet.

Mike
 
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