How would you fix this (furniture repair)?...pics

[Irvin Cooper]

A guy down the street has asked me to fix a dining room chair for him. Leg came off from regular use.

I am thinking of drilling the holes out clean to a 1/2 inch (current holes are around 3/8, and then gluing in a hardwood dowel. After which hardens, i am thinking go back and drill two more 3/8 inch holes throught in the leg and into the chair frame and dowel pin it all together with some glue, letting it dry until clamp pressure.

Does anyone have a better idea on how you would do this?




http://www.astate.edu/executive/cio/IMG_1299.jpg

http://www.astate.edu/executive/cio/img_1300.jpg

And last, I think I found the source of the original problem :>

http://www.astate.edu/executive/cio/img_1303.jpg

As always, thanks for the input and advice.

Irv

[Todd Burch]

The bolt in use appears to be a machine screw. Or, is it a wood screw? If it's a machine screw, I would epoxy a nut inside the hole.

Personally, I would stay away from any repair that would cause me to have to repair the finish where it would be visible.

Todd

[Steven Wilson]

You have the right idea. I would drill out the holes, fill in with a hardwood dowel and then remount like the other legs.

[Dan Barr]

yup,

drill out with a forstner and glue in a dowel. then rebuild the same. i did that on a piece and it came out perfect.

Who says you cant put it back? :D

v/r

dan

[Josiah Bartlett]

Most of the better mass produced chairs I have looked at use a threaded insert in that spot with machine screws. You could just drill the hole to accomodate a nice deep cut threaded insert, no filling necessary.

[Bob Aquino]

It looks like the 45 degree support block is also cracked on the one side, probably why the thing failed. You are 100% right on the initial cause of the failure as evidenced by the sticker on the bottom of the cushion. Most likely they glued the leg and support in after they painted them so the joint probably didn't hold too well.

You can fix this thing but my guess is that another leg and or joint will fail if not on this chair then on another one. Unless you are real good friends with the neighbor, you might want to let them know that he may have problems with the other chairs so he doesnt come back later with more problems. As to fixing it, I would try and pull the corner block out and re-glue it and then either drill out the holes for some new nuts or dowels to support the joint. Like Todd said, dont do anything that messes with the outside finish, unless of course you want to make sure this is the last repair job you will be doing...:eek:

[Mike McCann]

Have you looked at screw in t nuts you can find at rockler. Just srew them into the hole and reuse the attaching bolts.

[Charles Wiggins]

yup,

drill out with a forstner and glue in a dowel. then rebuild the same. i did that on a piece and it came out perfect.

Who says you cant put it back? :D

v/r

dan

Ditto! In fact I di several when I worked at a furniture store.