Furniture Repair - help!

[Eric Erb]

so i've got this nice desk and a leg is a bit loose. i took it apart, and what we have is a t-nut into the body of the desk (which is firm) and a rod with machine threads that match the t-nut on one side, and coarse thread to bite into the wood of the leg on the other. Naturally, the coarse-threads have torn out their hole in the leg.

What do you advise?

[Chris Padilla]

That is known as a hanger bolt: wood thread on one side, machine thread on the other.

I would glue in an appropriately-sized dowel. Or you could make your own dowel if you have a lathe or drill press.

You might clean out the stripped hole with a drill press or if you're careful, a handheld drill and then glue and drive home the dowel and redrill the hole.

Sometimes you can jam in some pieces of thin wood (think popsicle sticks, chopsticks, toothpicks, etc.) into the stripped hole and rethread. I've even seen aluminum foil work.

[Eric Erb]

thanks chris. i'll give that a go. how do i get the hole to be in line with the length of the leg? it's round and shaped...

[Edward Oleen]

thanks chris. i'll give that a go. how do i get the hole to be in line with the length of the leg? it's round and shaped...

Ummmmmmm....... "round and shaped"???? Could you post a picture of it???

[Lee Schierer]

Go to the hardware store and find a hanger bolt in a longer length, but the same machine thread size. Then pick up some epoxy. Drill a pilot hole deeper into the leg to fit your new hanger bolt, fill the existing hole with epoxy, screw in the new hanger bolt and let the epoxy set up.

Or,

Go tot he hardware store and get the next larger size T-nut and hanger bolt. Replace both pieces in your desk. It won't hurt to fill in the stripped out hole with epoxy before threading in the new hanger bolt. Be sure that the hole in the leg is the right pilot hole size for teh larger hanger olt so you don't split the leg screwing it in.

[Eric Erb]

It's turned, so it is sort of a cylinder but the top is larger diameter than the bottom