Doug Mason
09-05-2008, 12:05 AM
I have been anointed the task of fixing a family members 150/200 yr old string bed.
It is about eight feet long, pine, with a headboard/footboard whose tenons fit into their respective bed posts (easy to disassemble). The two long rails (around a 2 1/2 radius - very thick) are threaded on both ends and screw into the bed posts.
So here's the problem: sometime in the beds history someone made the bed longer by cutting each of rails at about 3/4 of thier lenght - then dowelling an additional foot long piece of wood between the 3/4 and 1/4 long rails--effectively making a seven foot long bed into one eight feet long. However, one of the rails gave way where the extra foot long piece was dowelled into the 3/4 piece (the inch wide dowel hole caused the failure--and there is a crack some six inches long on the 3/4 piece that goes the lenght of the dowel hole and then some). Luckly, the failure only created the long crack without allowing the dowel to come clean through--but it was enough to cause the rail to sink about a half-foot.
So what is my best fix for this? I was thinking of epoxy--but I tend to believe it will be a matter of time before the epoxy gives. Any thoughts on the best repair?
It is about eight feet long, pine, with a headboard/footboard whose tenons fit into their respective bed posts (easy to disassemble). The two long rails (around a 2 1/2 radius - very thick) are threaded on both ends and screw into the bed posts.
So here's the problem: sometime in the beds history someone made the bed longer by cutting each of rails at about 3/4 of thier lenght - then dowelling an additional foot long piece of wood between the 3/4 and 1/4 long rails--effectively making a seven foot long bed into one eight feet long. However, one of the rails gave way where the extra foot long piece was dowelled into the 3/4 piece (the inch wide dowel hole caused the failure--and there is a crack some six inches long on the 3/4 piece that goes the lenght of the dowel hole and then some). Luckly, the failure only created the long crack without allowing the dowel to come clean through--but it was enough to cause the rail to sink about a half-foot.
So what is my best fix for this? I was thinking of epoxy--but I tend to believe it will be a matter of time before the epoxy gives. Any thoughts on the best repair?