flea market find rocker redo questions

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Oliver Springs, TN
I didn't know where to post this so feel free to move it if need be.

I found this little rocker Saturday at a local flea market. I like the lines and the price was right. I got this little beaut for 5 bucks. It needs some work. The lady said it had been in their barn for years. It looks like it with the bird poo and grime on it!

I'll get my wife to reupholster the seat and back. I haven't cleaned it yet either. My question is for you finishing gurus. How should I handle the joints that are loose? Would you go with a complete refinish or just clean and recover? I'm guessing from the maple written on the seat that it's maple. It does look like maple. I don't think the angle brackets are original. They may be from a previous repair attempt.
 

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John, since you wife is going to reupholster it i would totally disassemble the chair and then re-glue it. Chances are the glue is hide glue so it will be problematic if you try to fix one joint and another will loosen. Then i would strip and totally refinish.
 
i dont know antiques well but this doesnt seem to be one.. i would strip it and them see if your joints open up enough to separate, if so then scrape the joint and re-glue the chair up then refinish and reupholster. that stuff that dons talks about "Dads stripper" is supposed to be pretty good stuff.
 
look their is medal braces in that there chair. John remove the upholstery, take it all apart and if you think you will have problems figuring out how to put it back together again number each part. You will need new dowels for the joints. Remove all the old glue and re glue. Nice lil chair.
 
Here's a few pics of the finished rocker. I ended up just sanding all the parts after I took it apart. It came apart really easily. It took a couple of hours to take apart, sand and glue everything back together. I ended up taking it to have it covered. I figured I'd have around 50 in materials, so if I could get it covered for 100 or less I'd let the upholsterer do the job. Well I have 104 dollars total in the rocker. It's kind of low for me, but my 10 year old son has claimed it.
 

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Good job, I can feel your satisfaction from here. Isn't that great when one brings back to life something that some other people was throwing away?:thumb:
 
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