repair a broken leg on a nice sideboard

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Thanks! The owner had her wall to wall carpet upgraded to wall to wall engineered wood floor covering (not to be confused with wood flooring), thus the snafu of tipping it to put the felts on, and the broken leg. The whole dining room suite is McIntosh. I hope no 200+ pounders lean back in those chairs. Her late husband was a furniture sleuth around Liverpool and Bristol. She told some stories that sounded like Roald Dahl,s Parson's Pleasure short story.

[Doug Garson]

It would look better without those feet.

Agree, five minutes with a brown sharpie could fix it.

[Christopher Charles]

Nice and thoughtful repair!

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Titebond original is my go to as well. No thanks to II or III. Extend is helpful. Dark is indispensable for some tasks. The Moderators changed the title of this post. I am not sure why?

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Well the sideboard has held up well. I received a call today that the legs of the matching Macintosh table have become too wobbly for use. Time to eat my words about Titebond III. I am going to use III on the table. It has clever retractable leaves that fold in half and stow away under the main leaves. It is lightly built but holding up fairly well. It has at least one broken dowel. I am going to try to pull the broken dowels out after some steam.

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[Maurice Mcmurry]

Success with steam. I am somewhat surprised. Just slight damage to the finish, I hope I can fix that.

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[Bernie Kopfer]

I'd just remove any splinters that prevented a tight mate and glue and clamp with regular pva. If necessary, I'd add a single screw, then remove it and fill afterwards. Why bother with hide glue?

I think Johnny has raised a very good question. What is the advantage of hide glue in this situation compared to a good pva?

[John Kananis]

The "old" hide glue could cause a bonding issue for the pva. other than that, it's not like you're trying to preserve the integrity of a 100y/o Stickley or anything so why not?

[Maurice Mcmurry]

The "old" hide glue could cause a bonding issue for the pva. other than that, it's not like you're trying to preserve the integrity of a 100y/o Stickley or anything so why not?

A started to have doubts about PVA when I felt how gooey the old brown glue became when it was hot. It acts like hide glue but has no odor. The other dowels have a tiny wiggle but do not want to come apart. I am thinking about relying on new, bigger corner blocks with 4 screws and 2 lags rather than a complete dismantle. The owner is fine with that. I will keep pondering while I make the odd size dowel. I would not have expected it to be metric, I don't have a fractional English match, I will make a 29/64ths

[John Kananis]

I try and avoid a hardware fix (screws, lags, etc) whenever possible. Just a personally choice I guess but I feel that hardware-bound-assembled-whatever become loose and rickety over time.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I try and avoid a hardware fix (screws, lags, etc) whenever possible. Just a personally choice I guess but I feel that hardware-bound-assembled-whatever become loose and rickety over time.

That is a philosophy I aim for too. This is built so lightly I am conflicted. Lags or machine lags with nuts can be tightened periodically. My goal with hardware would be to avoid the breaking of another dowel during a disassembly or in the future.

[John Kananis]

Seems like its light weight is part of what makes the piece aesthetically pleasing. Also seems like a judgement call. I'd think leave the piece original but I don't have my own two hands on it to have any kind of feel of what to do.

Edit: the corner blocks weren't put there for a structural reason to begin with. Or, that's at least not what they're intended for.

[Mel Fulks]

Liquid hide glue is kept liquid by a chemical additive. I have heard from several guys that it is not as strong as the mix and heat old
stuff.

[mike stenson]

A few years ago FWW did some tests. They're pretty similar, porosity seems to matter.

Type1 PVA > slow set epoxy > PVA > liquid hide > hot hide > polyurethane was their order

https://www.finewoodworking.com/2007...g-is-your-glue

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Conflicted is where I am at. Getting 4 of 16 dowels apart was traumatic. I dread the thought of breaking anything else. We have a hardwood table that has legs attached with two machine lags and nuts with no attachment to the skirt other than through the corner bracket. I think I will ask the owner. She says her late Husband and I collaborated on the corner blocks 20 years ago. I remember adding the sash locks to the stow-away leaves. It is a bad sign that I do not remember doing those corner blocks. I do always make corner blocks with diagonal grain and use Phillips head screws, she is probably correct.