"Cliff Hartle" wrote in message
news:KVtSg.3248$Kw1.293@trnddc05...
I've been accused of breaking these (I didn't) and I'd like to know
what happened to them. The railing is broke at the top of the stairs.
When people go down the stairs they tend to lean or put their wait on
the top part of the railing.

Why isn't there a bracket at the top of the stairs? It looks like 2 to 3
feet before the broken bracket thats allot to torque on that bracket.
There should be another bracket.


The chair is rarely used anymore. It's picked up at the top every week
on cleaning day and moved to another room. The cats also like to climb
and stand on the very top part of the chair. They've also knocked it
over once or twice.


Its from leaning back on the chair. Dropping it on it's back probably
helped.
Bingo on the braket- as soon as I saw the picture, I thought the rail needed
a top and bottom bracket. Close to 1/3 the length looks to be cantilevered,
with 'lever' being the key part of the word. Somebody grabs the end of that
long lever, it puts a hell of a lot of stress on those puny brackets. The
different color in the breaks screams 'pot metal' Replace ALL the brackets
with steel or brass, and probably go up a size- that is a pretty hefty
handrail.

As to the chair- cheap chair, looks like it broke at the kerf for the dowel
end part. Leaning back probably did it.

Who is having the hissy fit? The busted rail is trivial- 10 bucks for new
brackets (at least 3, preferably 4) and half an hour, will fix that. The
chair may or may not be fixable, depending on available tools and skill. If
it is an heirloom, any furniture refinisher can probably either replace the
spindle, or put a pin in there and fix it. I'd glue it, and run a long
skinny stainless screw up from the bottom of the seat, through the center of
the dowel. It would take some serious freehand aiming to pull off.

All in all, not a big deal, and tell whoever is upset about it to chill
already.

aem sends...