Need help repairing a chair!

[George Farra]

Hi All,

This chair is part of a bedroom set. It was my sisters bedroom set as a child and it is now her daughters, so there is alot of sentimental value to this.

I need to make a repair to the tenon of one of he chair rails. As you can see it in the attached pictures it broke.

I would normally spin a new chair rail, but the set is finished in painted manner that I cannot replicate. I am also trying the keep the set original.

So what repair options do I have?? Can I clean out the joint and trim the tenon, then use a dowel to glue everything back up?

Any other thoughts??

Thank you, George

[Bradley Gray]

When I fix a chair I usually try to take it as far apart as possible and re-glue all the M &T joints with lots of clamps.

That being said, sometimes the best I can do is re-glue and drill for a screw after re- assembly.

[George Farra]

Hi Bradley,

I should have mentioned that I was able to take the entire chair apart. In doing so, I quickly understood why this joint failed. All the joints where loose. So I do plan on re-gluing the entire chair.

Thanks, George

[Bradley Gray]

Since you have it apart, go ahead and make a new stretcher. It may not match perfectly but will give the best service. (and add to the chair's history)

Another problem I have discovered on a lot of chairs with joint failure is 1 or 2 of the legs need to be trimmed - being off causes a lot of stress on the joinery.

[Mike Stelts]

I've watched my father try to fix broken chair rails on sentimental pieces. They break again, looking worse and worse. I would "add to the chair's history".

[Peter Christensen]

If the chair was for display you could drill the pieces as they are for a smaller diameter dowel. Since it is for play you should replace it. If you can't duplicate or get reasonably close then take it to someone good that does refinishing.

[Jim Becker]

The dowel idea can work if you can jig up a way to accurately bore into the workpiece with a large enough diameter to duplicate the original tenon diameter. It would be the one way to avoid making a whole new component and then dealing with the finishing challenge. But if that is not practical or doable...a new part and fun with finishing it is...

[Robert Engel]

Since you have a lathe, you could use a stepped dowel inserted into hole bored in stretcher, then turn down to fit mortise.

[Rick Whitehead]

Can you get the broken tenon stub out? If so, then you could glue it back on to the stretcher, and then drill lengthwise through the tenon for a dowel that would go through the break into the stretcher.
Rick

[Lee Schierer]

Since you have the chair apart clean all the tenons and sockets to remove old glue. Most likely the fit will then be very loose. What I do in that case is to make a thin maple shaving with my hand plane. I coat the tenon and shaving with glue then wrap the shaving tightly around the tenon. I clamp the shaving by wrapping it with several stretched rubber bands. Once the glue sets up I file the beefed up tenon until I get a good snug fit in the mating socket. Once all the spindles are beefed up I assemble the chair gluing each spindle in place. I've had these repairs last over 20 years.

Gluing the broken end back on the spindle will be very weak. If you do, drill ahole through the end into the spindle for a hardwood dowel. You can increase the tenon as described above once it is reinforced.

[Wayne Lomman]

The strongest way is to replace the component. However, that does not preserve its authenticity nor the finish. Robert's stepped dowel method is the next best solution. You have a lathe so set it up in a chuck, face the broken end of the spindle, and bore a hole into the centre of the spindle. Make this hole to a size that leaves a 3mm wall thickness as a minimum. Bore it deep enough to reach back into a fatter part of the spindle. This could be 100mm or more by the look of it. Now turn up a stepped dowel that fits this hole full depth and has plenty of size on the larger step for turning the spindle end. Glue it in place and then put it back in the lathe between centres and finish turning the tenon end. Use the same species of timber if at all possible. Clean out the broken stub and re-assemble as already described by others. It's a stretcher, not a leg or back splat so this will last as long as the rest of the chair. Cheers