Dissassembling a broken chair

[Robert Reece]

Help me save my grandmother's chair. This set was bought in 1930 and unfortunately has not survived my children.

Attached are a few pictures of the chair. You can see the crack on the back support where the chair seat meets it.

So how do I disassemble this thing and get it back to working?

[David DeCristoforo]

Don't. Just work some glue into the cracks (plenty of glue) and any broken joints and clamp it back together. You will probably do more damage trying to get the whole thing apart than you have now. Getting those glue blocks loose is not going to be an easy thing. You could hope that it is assembled with hide glue and try to steam it apart but I would leave that as a last resort.

PS Always have some crappy chairs for the kids. It's not that they don't merit a good chair. It's just that kids are really tough on chairs. They like to rack them around and lean back in them which is the easiest way to destroy a chair. Whenever I came up with a new chair design I would make a prototype and give it to one of my kids to use for a few months. If it was still in one piece, I would figure it was a good chair.

[Robert Reece]

Thanks David-

I will try just gluing it back together. Unfortunately the other side is cracked, but it is cracked across the grain, not parallel like the picture I posted. I am not sure glue will do the trick there, but we shall see. I might have to end up with some kind of other structural support on that side.

[lowell holmes]

If you get into a re-build, disassembly can be expedited by warm water in the case of hide glue. Warm white vinegar will soften elmer's glue.

New back posts would be the proper repair if the chair is worth it. Often times, chairs from that era will have doweled joints which I find to be more of a challenge than m&t. If you get into replacing the back posts, loose tenon joints might be desirable.

[David DeCristoforo]

How badly is the other side "cracked"? If there is a break across the grain, I would see if it could be separated completely and then repaired with a dowel "spline". A pic of the crack (break) would help.

[Robert Reece]

Sorry for the delay on getting the picture of the other break. I just haven't been able to get on SMC over the last few days.

So, here is the picture of the break on the other side.

[keith ouellette]

Sorry for the delay on getting the picture of the other break. I just haven't been able to get on SMC over the last few days.

So, here is the picture of the break on the other side.

When you apply pressure to the back can the crack open a bit?

I fixed a chair with almost the same exact problem. I forced the crack open, only a little bit so it wouldn't break, and then I forced clear quick set epoxy as deep into the crack as I could and then put pressure in the other direction to close the crack as much as possible. then I wiped off the excess epoxy to give it a cleaner look. You could still see the crack but it wasn't an eye soar and it was filled with epoxy so it was smooth.

It was a strong repair and it held together fine. I have done this same thing to the leg of a bead, a bed headboard, and a drawer handle. It works out great.

[Paul Atkins]

Another thing I would do is to have the kids help repair them. Two lessons here - chairs break - they are hard to repair. They might learn some woodworking as well.

[Robert Reece]

I can get the crack open some. But it's definitely fragile feeling.
So maybe I will try the epoxy. Probably won't be until next weekend that I will get to it.

[David DeCristoforo]

I would at least consider "finishing" that break. Then drill a dowel into both halves and glue it back together.