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
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"
Once I finished up deliveries, I took the chair down to the Dungeon and got to work, here is what I started out with....
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....
First I made some cuts along the back of the chair near the upright back chair posts.
Then, using my rabbeting plane I made a nice flat spot for the supports to sit.
I used some half round I had kicking around, it was exactly the right size! 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.
I had to use a few clamps to get everything lined up and then tight
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!
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"
Once I finished up deliveries, I took the chair down to the Dungeon and got to work, here is what I started out with....
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....
First I made some cuts along the back of the chair near the upright back chair posts.
Then, using my rabbeting plane I made a nice flat spot for the supports to sit.
I used some half round I had kicking around, it was exactly the right size! 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.
I had to use a few clamps to get everything lined up and then tight
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!