best glue for chair rounds

[Barry Versteegh]

I am working on 105 year old oak chairs that was my grandfathers wedding present in 1917 I have had the dinning table and chairs about 45 years and use everyday. About every ten years or so round chairs spreaders come lose i have been using titebond three for glue up and cleaning round and socket in the past just wondering if anyone had come up with a better fix. I was thinking about two part epoxy but a afraid as hard as it gets the joint would fail in the flexing the joint does. Should I just be thankful it only every 10 years.

[Lee Schierer]

When a spreader joint fails, the first thing I do is to clean up both the socket and the end of the spreader. Then I make a long maple or oak shaving with my hand plane. I apply glue to the end of the spreader and the shaving and wrap it tightly around the end of the spreader. I clamp the shaving with one or more rubber bands wrapped around the piece. Once the glue dries, I it the end of the spreader into the socket, sanding as necessary to get a snug it. Then I apply glue to the inside of the socket and a light coating on the end of the spreader, assemble and clamp the joint with a webbed strap clamp. I place the chair on a flat surface and weight the seat so the legs all sit firmly on the floor. Joints fixed in this way have last many years depending upon the use and abuse the chair receives.

[Carl Beckett]

Hide glue.

I will see what the experts here recommend - but one school of thought it that over time chair joints will fail (a lot of stress and movement). And if you glue it 'too good' then it might just break.

(personally I made some that were mortise and tenon joints and not designed for movement, but those are really beefy and not the usual chair joint)

[Frank Pratt]

PVA glue (Titebond III) will not stick to itself. All the old glue must be removed first.

[Scott Winners]

I had never heard of Lee's method before, but I will remember it. That is a great idea for filling joints made loose by scraping away PVA.