"dpb" wrote in message ...
SteveB wrote:
...

Now for the question. Most all the dowels are lose in their sockets.
What is the best glue to use to get a good joint? I have used some
Elmer's before, and the things came loose soon after. Is there a
particular brand of Elmer's, or another? I have seen Gorilla Glue, but
with all the foaming and expanding, I'm not so sure of using it.
...

If by "dowels loose in their sockets" you mean they are loose enough to
wiggle and essentially simply fall out on their own, glue alone of any
type isn't the answer -- you need to first fix either the hole or the
dowel to have a snug fit.

As for wood glue, any of the yellow PVA glues are fine. White glue is ok
as well, but not quite as strong. Either, however, will rely on having a
clean wood-to-wood contact and a tight-fitting joint to begin with. Old
glue and a loose fit will guarantee a non-lasting joint.

The polyurethane glues (such as Gorilla) are not worth a flip for
gap-filling, being even worse than yellow. Even in a good fitting joint
it isn't as strong in almost all instances, despite the hype/advertising.

If it were mine and there were sufficient room, I'd probably drill the
holes out to the next larger dowel size. Failing that, I'd clean the
existing holes out well and turn new dowels to fit.

--

Thank you for the great explanation. I would have just thought that gluing
would be enough. Yes, on a couple, you can pull the joint apart because the
dowel/hole interface has too much slop. The only thing really holding it
together are the diagonal inside corner brackets. But they look like they
are still pretty good, without any of the screw holes being ripped out. For
those, will probably just do the toothpick glue trick to make the screws get
a good bite. Am going to keep the original screws, too, and IIRC, have a
couple of extra ones in my old screw/bolt bin in case these are stripped.
Or I can Dremel the groove a little deeper.

Main thing is that after redoing this, the chair is used only for looks, and
not for sitting. It's such a cute little chair.

Steve