Can I fix this? (crack in door glue up!)

[Michael Donahue]

Help! :mad:

I've had nothing but trouble making half a dozen doors for some home office cabinets! I just took one of my doors out of the clamps only to find the crack you see in the pic. I've exhausted my extra material and I can't get excited about firing up my rocker rail/stile bits again (that fiasco was in another thread:( )

Could I use a syringe maybe and squeeze some glue into this crack? Do you think it will hold up? Is there any other way to salvage this door? The other 5 doors came out of the clamps just fine and I'm dreading having to buy more material and start from scratch just for one more door.

Thanks for the help folks.

[Brian Effinger]

I would try to glue it first. If you wanted to, and these aren't high-end pieces for a client, then I'd maybe drill and install a dowel or two into the side of the style for some extra reinforcement. You could also add a pocket screw to the back as a last resort - I'm sure someone is going to slam me for this commet ;)

Brian

[Brian Peters]

If its for you, get a lot of glue in there and clamp it up let it sit overnight in clamps. It should hold up fine. If its for a customer I would replace it, not worth dealing with it later down the road.

[Lee Schierer]

I agree with Brian. First, clamp the joint and insure it will close up. If it does, release the clamp pressure and work the glue into the crack with some dental floss or thin piece of plastic shim stock. Adding the dowels would strengthen the joint as would pocket screws. The end grain of the dowels could be hidden by some cross grain plugs along the outside edge, making the repair nearly invisible. Pocket holes would be more obvious.

[Michael Donahue]

The cabinets are for a home office I'm putting together for my dad....he's not as picky as most clients and it'd take a crowbar to open up his wallet for more material :D

The joint will close up with some clamping pressure so I think I'm going to try to reglue it first. I've been using titebond 3 so far so I should be OK using this for the repair, right?

Thanks for all the tips!

[Brian Peters]

Yeah titebond is good stuff, put a lot of glue in there get some squeeze out, clean with a damp rag.

[Robert Parrish]

I just had a couple of these happen to me on a curio cabinet. I mixed a little sawdust and Titebond and re-glued them. They look great now.

[Warren Clemans]

Titebond doesn't stick to itself very well, so you might be better off adding dowels (drilled from the edge through the joint) to get some new wood to glue to. Good luck.

[Roger Myers]

Michael,
More glue may do the trick, but the first question should be why did they crack?
I'm assuming the panel you have is free floating in the frame... right?
How much space do you have for the panel to float (across its width)?
If that panel wassnug to the groove, or glued in by mistake, and the panel expands across its width, as it will...you will see the type of crack you have and more glue will not help...and the other doors may be at risk.
If you used ply or other composite for the panel, then no issue, but i solid wood, it will move across its width and you need to allow for this...

Roger

[Norm Roberts]

Another method to get glue down into a difficult area is with a little air pressure.

[Chip Lindley]

Yes, WHY??

I see that part of the stile profile failed and remained attached to your cope on the rail. This tells me one of two things.

(1) The panel has expanded beyond the length of the tongues on the rail. (looks like almost 3/64" gap to me) Your panel appears to be ply (correct me if I am wrong) and ply does not expand or contract enough to cause this failure. So.....

(2) Too-wide panels! If you clamped the joints TIGHT to *make them fit* with too-wide ply panels, everything was compressed. Then, removing the clamps allowed all to expand back to normal! Part of the glue joint failed; part of the stock failed.

Needless to say, panels must be sized smaller than the overall width of the rails (tongue to tongue) I rip off 1/8" on each side after panel raising.

The only way to truly fix this is to know better next time! But THIS time, I would secure the joints by injecting Gorilla Glue or equivalent, (very sparingly, it expands!) and fill the gaps with veneers of the same wood you made the doors of. Mechanically fastening the joints with screws covered with plugs would add extra insurance against future failure.

OR, Be a good boy and bite the bullet! Buy new stock for stiles and do the doors over again Correctly! Rails and panels can probably be saved for re-using! ....That is....IF you really LIKE your father-in-law, and don't want to be called a *Meathead*! GoodLuck!

[Kevin Godshall]

Yeah, I gotta agree with Chip. If the panel caused the crack, you are only asking to repeat it by gluing and reclamping. Even if it holds for a bit, it will fail over time.

Did you adequately glue up the entire joint before assembly? I would think the bottom would have held as well as the top if glued up right.

Biggest thing of all.........we all make mistakes. What makes us better woodworkers is that we identify the problems, learn how to correct them, and then never make them again (the same mistakes anyway, always new ones out there to learn).