Chair Repair Questions

[John Towns]

My wife works at a Dr Office where one of the Dr's has a nice chair broken by a patient. Specifically, the rung attached to the two front legs broke right at the tenon.
I was able to fix the chair rung. When I checked the rest of the base of the chair, I noticed that one of the front legs was slightly loose (has a very slight wobble). I further noticed that there was a small nail driven through the tenon into the bottom of the seat making it very difficult to remove the leg and re-glue.
My questions:
1. How can I remove this nail without digging up the wood? The nail is small and there is very little room to grab the head of the nail.
2. This is perhaps the more important question... Should I leave well enough alone? The leg, without the support of the rung has only a slight wobble. When I reattach the rung, would that provide enough stability to suffice?

I would appreciate any suggestions.

John

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

Depending on quality of the chair and area where this nail located (visible vs none) - you can use Bondo after removing nail to repair area.

Ed.

[Peter Christensen]

Unless they are paying you to re-glue the entire chair I would leave well enough alone. If they want the chair made solid then look for a plug cutter or tiny hole saw made to drill the wood around the nail. When you put it back together you can fill the hole with a plug. If you can't find the tool get a steel bushing or tube and file teeth into it. You should be able to do a few holes before it needs sharpening even if you can only find soft steel.

[Ted Derryberry]

I've never used it but in the woodworking catalogs I see "chair repair glue". It's supposed to wick into the joints and then swell up and hold tight. The idea is you don't have to take the chair apart. I know, it sounds too good to be true, but that's what I would try before anything else. I'd leave the nail alone. I doubt the doctor knows, or cares, that there is a nail in the bottom of his chair.

[Bill Dufour]

A roll pin can be easily used to drill a small core around the nail. You might use as is or grind a tooth or two onto the front like a hole saw.
Bill

[Lee Schierer]

Careful use of a pair of end nippers will sometimes allow you to grip the head of the nail and pull it out. You have to squeeze hard enough to get a grip and not so hard as to cut off the nail.
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The most long lasting chair repair work I have been able to do involves removing the spindle or leg from its socket. Then cleaning out all the old glue in the socket and off the tenon. Then find a maple board with straight grain. Use a sharp hand plane to make a shaving about .010" thick. Coat the shaving with glue and wrap it tightly around the tenon. Wrap rubber bands around the glue and shaving until the glue dries. Carefully file the tenon down to size so it fits snugly in the cleaned up socket. Once you are satisfied with the fit, apply glue and assemble the chair.

[Wayne Lomman]

If the leg is loose, the chair has failed. Chairs need all joints tight. Bill and Lee have excellent suggestions as to how to go about the repair. There is no difficulty linking a broken rung with a loose leg so billing them for the whole job is quite legitimate. Or on the other hand be remembered as the repair guy who returned a chair that was still wobbly. Cheers

[lowell holmes]

Wayne, an off subject question, I am in Dickinson, Texas , about 25 miles South of Houston, Texas. So while I remember a bit about World geography, I sometimes have issues with time zones and distance with countries that are in the Southern hemisphere and on the other side of the world.

The date and time of your post that shows on my computer is 7:5 AM 2/6,2018. What time of the day is it there. I am thinking it is in the early evening. I'm just curious.

[Bill Fleming]

I’ve used the stuff to swell the tenon with success. A friend swears by urethane glue. He drills a small hole, injects some water, lets the water soak in, injects the glue. Seems to have worked. I wouldn’t use either of these on a customer project until I had a few personal ones or they were on board with the experiment.

[John C Cox]

I think I like Lee's suggestion the best.....

Often as not - you find the mortise massively oversize and the entire joint was made of glue.. Recipe for failure right off the bat... And it's frustrating as well.. Proper fitment of joints for glue up is well known in the furniture industry... And yet they keep doing it....

Sister in law bought a set of chairs for her kitchen table... Within a year - all the legs and rungs had come loose on all of them.. Every mortise was made 1/16" or 1/8" oversize.. Horrible!

[Peter Christensen]

Wayne, an off subject question, I am in Dickinson, Texas , about 25 miles South of Houston, Texas. So while I remember a bit about World geography, I sometimes have issues with time zones and distance with countries that are in the Southern hemisphere and on the other side of the world.

The date and time of your post that shows on my computer is 7:5 AM 2/6,2018. What time of the day is it there. I am thinking it is in the early evening. I'm just curious.

He is 17 hours ahead of you. So your 7:50am on the 6th would be his 1:50am the 7th, the next day. Easiest is to search "what time is it in _________" and up it pops on the screen.

Opps I added wrong. 1:50 should be 12:50.

[Lee Schierer]

Wayne, an off subject question, I am in Dickinson, Texas , about 25 miles South of Houston, Texas. So while I remember a bit about World geography, I sometimes have issues with time zones and distance with countries that are in the Southern hemisphere and on the other side of the world.

The date and time of your post that shows on my computer is 7:5 AM 2/6,2018. What time of the day is it there. I am thinking it is in the early evening. I'm just curious.

Lowell, when you posted your question at 8:59 a.m. in Dickinson, it was 1:59 a.m. tomorrow morning in Tasmania.

[lowell holmes]

Lee,
I see you are a retired naval officer. I was an enlisted quartermaster in the Naval reserve. I was called up during the Berlin crisis. I spent 13 months on active duty on the USS Haas, DE-252.
I look back on the time fondly. We ended up in Key West Florida attached to the fleet sonar school. One day we were training sonar men and I saw the Nautilus on the surface. It was making
20 - 30 knots, throwing a rooster tail 20-30 feet in the air. Their speed was classified, but it was sight to behold.
We were a reserve ship with a reserve skipper and crew. The commanding officer was a reservist Commander. He made Captain during the time. It was interesting to see the cruisers and regular
navy ships signal us with flashing light to demand we render honors. We would respond to the pub showing commanding offocers and wait laughing while they determined that our skipper was the senior officer.
They would promptly render honors.

About half the crew on our ship had battle experience during WWII. We were heavy in E-7 and E-8 enlisted men. We shot down three air sleeves during our ORI.

[John Towns]

To all,
Thanks so much for your comments and advice.

Lee,

Your suggestion of making a thin shaving from a piece of maple was an excellent piece of advice. I had a piece of maple handy so I used a sharp plane to make a shaving which I wrapped and glued around one particularly loose tenon. It allowed for a nice and tight joint.

Here is what I did:
1. I was able to remove all parts without removing any nails. Most of them were not adding any support to the joint anyways.
2. Once apart, I was then able to either remove the small nails or file them down if I could not remove them.
3. I cleaned the joints by filing sanding or removing with a small chisel.
4. Re-glued each joint.
5. While the glue was still wet, I put the chair on a flat floor and 'settled' the chair to ensure there was no wobble.
6. Since the chair was painted black (it is a Johns Hopkins University chair) I touched up the joints where bare wood was exposed.

Again, thanks for sharing your wisdom. It is greatly appreciated! My wife took the chair back to the doc this morning.

John