A Quick Chair Fix

Stuart Ablett

Member
Messages
15,917
Location
Tokyo Japan
Today, I was at my sushi shop customer, doing a delivery, and I noticed that two of their chairs were duct taped up :huh: :dunno:

I asked the Mama san about it, and she said they were broken. The duct tape was the lousy brown kind and it had dried up and left a sticky mess, she was concerned that it might get on some customer's clothes, so she was contemplating tossing the chairs. I had a quick look and said "I can fix that, not problem, better than new" :rolleyes: :D

Once I finished up deliveries, I took the chair down to the Dungeon and got to work, here is what I started out with....

sushiya_chair_1.jpg sushiya_chair_2.jpg sushiya_chair_3.jpg
It originally had 4 long brass threaded rods that went from the bottom to the top to hold these rib like back pieces in place, the brass is soft and it broke. The had someone fix it once, they just pounded some nails into the lower part, clipped the heads off and pounded the top two rails into place, they also used some epoxy, which is way too brittle for this job. They paid somethings like $50 a chair to have two of them fixed and the fix did not even last two years.

The problem is the design, the top two back rail things have zero support and take all the abuse. I came up with a way to make it all a lot stronger, add no more metal, and hopefully look have decent....

sushiya_chair_4.jpg
First I made some cuts along the back of the chair near the upright back chair posts.

sushiya_chair_5.jpg
Then, using my rabbeting plane I made a nice flat spot for the supports to sit.

sushiya_chair_6.jpg
I used some half round I had kicking around, it was exactly the right size! :thumb: I did carve round over the ends before I glued it up, I also removed all the old glue off the pieces, and planed them flat, so they would mate up nicely, providing lots of surface area to glue.

sushiya_chair_7.jpg
I had to use a few clamps to get everything lined up and then tight

sushiya_chair_8.jpg sushiya_chair_9.jpg
The results after a couple of coats of lacquer, I think they will be pleased with it, no new nails or such were used, I was concerned the wood was getting turned into Swiss Cheese.

It seem plenty strong, I took it back and dropped it off, but they were busy, so I did not get a chance to talk to them.

If they like what I did, I'll do the other busted one too, and I'm sure this will not be the last one.

Not going to go into business with this stuff, but it was fun, and my customer really appreciates it.

Cheers!
 
Who would have thought their liquor supplier would be such a full service customer oriented business! :thumb: :thumb:

I'm sure they will appreciate it, and it doesn't hurt to be developing such a good relationship with your customers... :thumb:
 
Thanks Brent.

They know I'm handy and I've fixed little things for them in the past too.

We have to offer a full service, the discount shops are cheaper than us, and we can't match their prices :(
 
Nice fix but more than I would call a "quick" fix.
However, I'm with Mamasan. I would have tossed them based on just the ugly factor. :p
However, I do understand different cultural tastes.
 
Yep, they are not pretty, but they are 15 years old and have survived 6 days a week use, so they are well made, just this one flaw that is showing up now.

They are small chairs, most of us would consider them kids size :rolleyes: :D but they are for use in a small sushi shop, where space is expensive. They do the trick for sure.
 
Imho you done real good there. Not only in fixing/recycling the chair but enhancing your L stores value proposition and showing ability to provide creative solutions. Had the chair gone to the recycling dump it would have cost a bit to replace and then not neccessary matched the old ones when replaced.

I would love to hear the feedback when you get a chance to speak to her. Hope she aint like your MIL more of that type of attitude would get me down.:D

Nice save all round Stu, also good for the environment.:thumb:
 
No she is not like the Monster In Law, thank goodness, few are :thumb:

She will pay me back in other ways, I'll get some fruit or some such thing, the next time they get a box of fruit from someone as a gift, this kind of giving goes round and round, and I'm not keeping score, not need to when you are dealing with good people! :D
 
I almost went back and fixed that. I knew I was gonna take a hit for leaving that out ;-))

BTW, have they made any comments on your generous repair of their chair?

I've not seen them yet, when I dropped off the chair they were busy, and today is Sunday, we don't do deliveries on Sunday, and they are closed on Monday, so I'll have to wait until Tuesday to see them, and pick up the second chair, if they like what I did :dunno: :D
 
Well, they were totally thrilled, the Mama San was so happy, and she asked me, very politely, that if I have some more time, could I fix the second busted chair, to which I told her "Of course!" :thumb:

Most of the other 18 chairs will need this fix down the road, I figure that if I do one a month or as they need it, I'll have them all done in a year or so, and it will not be a big job at all, in fact, I'd rather do my fix before the back piece breaks off, it will be much easier that way.

Cheers!
 
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