In article ,
dpb wrote:

Gordon Shumway wrote:
On Thu, 23 Jul 2009 05:21:29 -0700, Smitty Two
wrote:

So the semi-antique coffee table I picked up on eBay has wobbly legs.
The table seems well-constructed but the little wooden triangular prism
leg-bracing blocks were all either cracked in two, or the glue had
separated from one face of the block or the other.

I've knocked them all off and cleaned up the residual glue from the
legs. Since I'm more of a machinist than I am a woodworker, I'm tempted
to replace them with some little pieces of lightweight aluminum angle
and some small screws. Any reason not to do that, other than purity?

If I go wood, does it matter what type of wood I use, and what type of
glue?

This message posted in rec.woodworking instead of here, along with a
picture posted to alt.bianries.pictures.woodworking, would have a
greater chance of someone getting you started in the best direction.

Well, I frequent both but few servers do binaries any longer so not many
will see abpw I think (and not I for sure); one of the hosting sites
probably better if were to post pics.

Anyway, guess it depends on whether there really is anything to the
piece other than a machine-produced (guessing) early to mid-20th century
piece or not.

As for what type of wood, any idea what it was that was used from the
removal process? In the purest sense, one replaces parts w/ as near
duplicates as one can manage including the material. If there were
idiosyncracies in the original construction, preserving them is part of
preserving value. Again, if it was just a mass-produced piece as is
likely, not so much concern--they probably just used whatever secondary
wood they had and stamped out the glue blocks willy-nilly.

How are the rails fitted to the legs? Are they just dowels or M&T or
can you tell? If the legs are wobbly that indicates those joints have
failed as well and it would be _a_good_thing_ (tm) to try to reglue them
as well as the glue blocks alone may be sufficient for the long haul.

_IF_ (the proverbial "big if") you really only want a functional table
and not worried about value (which indications would be if even
considering the Al angle idea ), I'd just make replacement blocks
from some straight-grained wood and use Titebond yellow glue or another
brand of equivalent. I would likely use a scrap piece of the soft maple
I happen to have a bunch of at the moment because it doesn't split, is
relatively hard (as compared to pine/poplar/etc.) but is still
relatively easily worked (as compared to, say, sugar maple). Lacking
that, a piece of clear, _dry_ yellow pine would suffice, or oak or
similar if happen to have some of it. Just want to avoid really soft
stuff like most construction "white wood" tubafor spruce, etc., and
obviously the treated construction scraps.

If the rails and leg surfaces are really cleaned very well to a bare
surface and the blocks fit well, you can simply apply a generous coat of
glue to the block faces and hand press it into place with a little
movement to really seat it well and dispense w/ clamping. If you have
some clamps handy, go ahead and use them, of course, but can get
perfectly adequate repair w/o them if the parts fit well and are clean.

HTH...

--

Terrific, thanks for all that. It no longer looks as though I'll be able
to get this done before I head out of town for the weekend, which is a
shame, because the table is going where I'm going.

Thanks to all for suggestions, I'll follow up next week.