Putting Humpty Dumpty back together

[Bill Tims]

This is a small roll top desk, probably 100 years old. It hasn't been treated well over the years, but it did belong to my grandmother (my sister got it). Somewhere, sometime the leg got broken. My brother in law glued it back together and put wood screws in it. When I took the screws out the leg came apart.

I suspect that the answer is to put a dowel in it, but I can't figure out how to get it centered in both pieces so that they line up correctly...so I am turning to the experts looking for some solutions. See the pictures here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Bill.Tims/DevicesDownloadFiles?feat=email#529299025331768893 0

http://picasaweb.google.com/Bill.Tims/DevicesDownloadFiles?feat=email#529299024345815413 0

The pictures were taken with my cell phone, so they are not great, but hopefully you can see the probelm.

Bill Tims

P.S. Yes I should just whip out a new leg to replace it, but I don't have a lathe.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I can't see the pictures (due to network restrictions). So without seeing the pictures, I'll just imagine the situation (leg broke in half, need to put back together, want dowel in the middle and therefore need hole centered in leg).

My first thought requires a few standard , semi-common tools. Including a plunge based router with large OD guide bushing, long straight plunge bit, hole saw with diameters equal to the leg OD and the guide bushing OD, and a two pieces of equal size (length and width) scrap 1/2" and/or 3/4" thick.

Take the two pieces of scrap and tape them together. Next, drill a pilot hole the same size as the arbor of a hole saw. Separate the pieces. In one piece, use the hole saw to drill a hole the same diameter as the leg. In the other piece, drill a hole the OD of a large router bushing. Now tape the pieces back together, the large OD piece will center the smaller OD piece in the leg. Mount the guide bushing and a straight long plunge bit in a plunge-base router and 'drill' the holes.

[Bob Aquino]

You dont have enough meat on that leg to do something like run a dowel down the middle and setting up some sort of jig doesn't look feasable either. Your end goal is to keep it as original looking as possible, so what I would do is to re-glue the leg using modern glue. Most of the break should meld back together. If you want some extra strenght, once its set you could try drilling a 1/4 inch sized hole through the point where it will go through both sides of the break and then glue in a dowel to lock them both together. Then you can smooth out the ends of the dowell to match and use some stain or other marker to color the end so it matches.

[Ian Gillis]

Hi

It looks as if you're going to still have visible damage to patch up even if you could get a dowel properly aligned - which would be a neat trick.

I was once designated "chair doctor" in a furniture shop, and I can say that a break at such an acute angle would take a lot of time and effort to bore. And if you're of by a titch, the dowel will prevent you from making any corrections during glue-up.

If it was mine to fix, I would go with epoxy and "plastic twine" -- the stuff they wrap pallets with. It's available in 2" widths and is able to apply a surprising amount of clamping pressure. I recently used it to repair a break in a plane tote.

It will smear the squeeze-out all over the place, however, so you should put some sort of release agent over all the finished surfaces surrounding the break. I used Conservator's Wax from LV and that worked very well.

An epoxy with a reasonable amount of open time is ideal, but I did use the el cheapo 5 minute stuff on my plane tote. Get everything ready to go, then mix and apply the epoxy. Align the 2 pieces as well as possible and start with a light wraps of the plastic film -- just to keep things in position. Then, increase the pressure and build up a few layers. You don't need to stretch it a lot. The pressure from each layer is added to the previous.

One of the benefits of the wrap is that you can see and feel your alignment for the first few wraps, and be sure it's good before applying the pressure. The wrap will resist movement in all directions -- think of the Chinese finger puzzle effect.

That's how I'd go about it.

Good luck

Ian

[Paul Atkins]

Is the square section the foot ? I would clean all the glue you can -water, heat scraping etc. and glue together using Ian's methods. Then drill down the middle with a 1/2" aircraft bit through the glued joint and put in a real hardwood dowel (not borg import) This seems like the least risky as far as screwing it up more and retains the original leg. Anthony's router process would work well if you are skilled and have the bits. My 2cts.