Wood glue, Liquid Nails, or ?
 

I have two wooden chairs that are coming apart and I want to glue them back
together. The rungs/cross-pieces that connect the chair legs together keep
coming out, which makes the chairs unstable.

In the past, I have used wood glue (carpenter's glue) to fix other wooden
chairs, but that never seems to work very well.

I was just wondering if Liquid Nails, or Contact Cement, or some other type
of glue might work better. My reason for wondering about Liquid Nails or
Contact Cement is that I think they both remain slightly flexible/elastic
while wood glue becomes brittle and seems to crack easily.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what might work best?

Thanks.

V-Jay wrote:
I have two wooden chairs that are coming apart and I want to glue them back
together. The rungs/cross-pieces that connect the chair legs together keep
coming out, which makes the chairs unstable.

In the past, I have used wood glue (carpenter's glue) to fix other wooden
chairs, but that never seems to work very well.

I was just wondering if Liquid Nails, or Contact Cement, or some other type
of glue might work better. My reason for wondering about Liquid Nails or
Contact Cement is that I think they both remain slightly flexible/elastic
while wood glue becomes brittle and seems to crack easily.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what might work best?

Lee Valley has something called Chair Doctor Glue that is supposed to be
just the ticket:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...0261&cat=1,110

I've not tried it, but my experience with the funny little products that
no one but Lee Valley seems to carry has been universally positive.
--
Bo Williams -
http://hiwaay.net/~williams/

Wood glue does not fill gaps, so if you don't have a tight fit, wood glue is
pretty useless.
Liquid nail does sorta fill gaps, so it might be a better choice; though I
have never found it to be very strong unless you have a great deal of
surface area.

An epoxy would probably be best.

On Thu, 3 Mar 2005 10:02:45 -0500, "V-Jay" wrote:

I was just wondering if Liquid Nails, or Contact Cement, or some other type
of glue might work better. My reason for wondering about Liquid Nails or
Contact Cement is that I think they both remain slightly flexible/elastic
while wood glue becomes brittle and seems to crack easily.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what might work best?

Sounds like a job for Gorilla Glue. It's an incredibly strong
polyurethane adhesive. It's great for furniture repairs like this
because it expands as it dries, filling voids made from earlier
repairs.

Tips: dampen one surface with water -- this helps the foaming. Use
less glue than you'd think you'd need. Keep an eye on the repair as
it dries and clean away any over-foam from the joint. I think you use
alcohol for this but I'd have to check the bottle.

And, by all means, wear latex or nitrile gloves with this stuff. It
will stain bare skin for days.

Steve Manes
Brooklyn, NY
http://www.magpie.com/house/bbs

Steve Manes wrote:

On Thu, 3 Mar 2005 10:02:45 -0500, "V-Jay" wrote:

I was just wondering if Liquid Nails, or Contact Cement, or some other type
of glue might work better. My reason for wondering about Liquid Nails or
Contact Cement is that I think they both remain slightly flexible/elastic
while wood glue becomes brittle and seems to crack easily.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what might work best?

Sounds like a job for Gorilla Glue. It's an incredibly strong
polyurethane adhesive. It's great for furniture repairs like this
because it expands as it dries, filling voids made from earlier
repairs.
....

It's absolutely worthless as a filler...the expansion is simply air
foam.

If the joint isn't tight, it isn't going to hold.

Need to fix the looseness of the joint first, then reglue.

I have two wooden chairs that are coming apart and I want to glue them back
together. The rungs/cross-pieces that connect the chair legs together keep
coming out, which makes the chairs unstable.

In the past, I have used wood glue (carpenter's glue) to fix other wooden
chairs, but that never seems to work very well.

I was just wondering if Liquid Nails, or Contact Cement, or some other type
of glue might work better. My reason for wondering about Liquid Nails or
Contact Cement is that I think they both remain slightly flexible/elastic
while wood glue becomes brittle and seems to crack easily.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what might work best?

Wood glue SHOULD work fine.
Clean the post and socket(s) thoroughly. Cut a vertical slot in the
tennon and stick a glue-coated wedge part-way in, so that when you
shove the crossbar home, it will expand the tennon. With that
clamped together, drill a small pilot hole, and pin the entire
assembly together with a short wire-nail, or if the leg is
thick enough, a countersunk screw. Don't go nuts with the wedge,
if it's too big, you risk splitting the leg. Stop tilting back in
your wooden chairs.

--Goedjn

The gaps are the problem. I've had good luck with wood glue, but I had
to put masking tape on to keep it from running out.

In the end, the spot has tape perminantly glued in the joing. You may
also want to try fill in the any gaps with tooth picks, popicle sticks
or sawdust/glue mix.

On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 10:15:10 -0600, Duane Bozarth
wrote:

Sounds like a job for Gorilla Glue. It's an incredibly strong
polyurethane adhesive. It's great for furniture repairs like this
because it expands as it dries, filling voids made from earlier
repairs.

It's absolutely worthless as a filler...the expansion is simply air
foam.

Have you ever tried to chip away that "worthless" filler after it's
cured? It will take the wood with it. The bonus is that it keeps
enough flexibility that the wood can still expand/contract without
breaking the joint, which is important with chair stringer repairs.

I learned about Gorilla Glue from a professional stair builder. He
uses it for stair repairs. I used it to repair a dozen old chairs a
couple of years ago and those repairs are rock solid.

Steve Manes
Brooklyn, NY
http://www.magpie.com/house/bbs

I used some stuff many years ago that I believe was called "chair-lok".
It came in a little squeeze bottle. They claimed that it would swell
the wood to make a tight joint. I seem to also remember using some
little corrugated metal strips that you put in the hole before you jam
in the "plug". The hardest part was doing a good clamping job, since
none of the legs on these Windsor style chairs were parallel, nor did
the struts meet the legs at right angles.

Now if I could only remember if all that worked worth a damn I'd have
some good advice to give you. :) It was a long time ago and those
chairs are long gone.

Greg Guarino

Steve Manes wrote:

On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 10:15:10 -0600, Duane Bozarth
wrote:

Sounds like a job for Gorilla Glue. It's an incredibly strong
polyurethane adhesive. It's great for furniture repairs like this
because it expands as it dries, filling voids made from earlier
repairs.

It's absolutely worthless as a filler...the expansion is simply air
foam.

Have you ever tried to chip away that "worthless" filler after it's
cured? It will take the wood with it. The bonus is that it keeps
enough flexibility that the wood can still expand/contract without
breaking the joint, which is important with chair stringer repairs.

I learned about Gorilla Glue from a professional stair builder. He
uses it for stair repairs. I used it to repair a dozen old chairs a
couple of years ago and those repairs are rock solid.

But it is just that--foam. I predict they won't last indefinitely.

(And, yes, I did try to use it for the purpose of filling the first time
I tried it--not satisfactory). IMO, YMMV, $0.02, etc., ...

Wood glue needs wood pores that haven't been sealed by stain with
binder or glue, AKA fresh clean wood. Agree with wedged tenon concept
though downside is you get ONE chance only. Boat builders suggest
epoxy with microbaloons although they're not reversible. Second don't
tilt back in chairs.

On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 11:24:02 -0500, Goedjn wrote:


I have two wooden chairs that are coming apart and I want to glue them back
together. The rungs/cross-pieces that connect the chair legs together keep
coming out, which makes the chairs unstable.

In the past, I have used wood glue (carpenter's glue) to fix other wooden
chairs, but that never seems to work very well.

I was just wondering if Liquid Nails, or Contact Cement, or some other type
of glue might work better. My reason for wondering about Liquid Nails or
Contact Cement is that I think they both remain slightly flexible/elastic
while wood glue becomes brittle and seems to crack easily.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what might work best?

Wood glue SHOULD work fine.
Clean the post and socket(s) thoroughly. Cut a vertical slot in the
tennon and stick a glue-coated wedge part-way in, so that when you
shove the crossbar home, it will expand the tennon. With that
clamped together, drill a small pilot hole, and pin the entire
assembly together with a short wire-nail, or if the leg is
thick enough, a countersunk screw. Don't go nuts with the wedge,
if it's too big, you risk splitting the leg. Stop tilting back in
your wooden chairs.

--Goedjn

V-Jay wrote:
I have two wooden chairs that are coming apart and I want to glue
them back together. The rungs/cross-pieces that connect the chair
legs together keep coming out, which makes the chairs unstable.

In the past, I have used wood glue (carpenter's glue) to fix other
wooden chairs, but that never seems to work very well.

I was just wondering if Liquid Nails, or Contact Cement, or some
other type of glue might work better. My reason for wondering about
Liquid Nails or Contact Cement is that I think they both remain
slightly flexible/elastic while wood glue becomes brittle and seems
to crack easily.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what might work best?

Thanks.

It's the flexing that's the problem. We're not talking shock-absorbers here,
the whole construction must be rigid.

On Thu, 3 Mar 2005 10:02:45 -0500, "V-Jay" wrote:

I have two wooden chairs that are coming apart and I want to glue them back
together. The rungs/cross-pieces that connect the chair legs together keep
coming out, which makes the chairs unstable.

In the past, I have used wood glue (carpenter's glue) to fix other wooden
chairs, but that never seems to work very well.

I was just wondering if Liquid Nails, or Contact Cement, or some other type
of glue might work better. My reason for wondering about Liquid Nails or
Contact Cement is that I think they both remain slightly flexible/elastic
while wood glue becomes brittle and seems to crack easily.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what might work best?

Thanks.


It's not the glue, but the joint. Try installing a wedge into the
tenon. If the end tenon it is not accessible (through the wood), then
try a fox wedge. This joint will lock it in place. A properly made
chair should not come apart under normal use. There is a product
called "chair lock" that you may want to try, although I have not
tested this product.

Thanks to everyone for your responses! I never expected to get this many
different ideas, and I guess I'll need to decide which ones to try first.

I've never seen or used Gorilla Glue, but I think I might try that first and
see what happens. If that doesn't seem to work out, I'll probably try the
wedge idea or something similar to make sure the mechanical connection
really solid with no gaps first before re-gluing.

I had a lot of fun out of fixing a couple of wooden child rocking chair
(originally gifted to my two grandchildren about a year before they came
apart). I used carpenter's glue, but to strengthen the joint I also added
screws (countersunk and shiny) I made a holes opposite where the crosspieces
connect and inserted screws through the wood and into the incoming
crosspieces. I did this at each place where the chair was weak or had come
apart. It took me awhile, but as a layman, I feel great that those chairs
have been solid ever since. Today, both children outgrew the chairs, but the
chairs are still there and looking good. ;)

I hope this idea helps.

--
Best regards.

PabloSr.
Still Learning!
That which I value most!
==================

"V-Jay" wrote in message
...
:I have two wooden chairs that are coming apart and I want to glue them back
: together. The rungs/cross-pieces that connect the chair legs together
keep
: coming out, which makes the chairs unstable.
:
: In the past, I have used wood glue (carpenter's glue) to fix other wooden
: chairs, but that never seems to work very well.
:
: I was just wondering if Liquid Nails, or Contact Cement, or some other
type
: of glue might work better. My reason for wondering about Liquid Nails or
: Contact Cement is that I think they both remain slightly flexible/elastic
: while wood glue becomes brittle and seems to crack easily.
:
: Anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what might work best?
:
: Thanks.
:
:

V-Jay wrote:

Thanks to everyone for your responses! I never expected to get this many
different ideas, and I guess I'll need to decide which ones to try first.

I've never seen or used Gorilla Glue, but I think I might try that first and
see what happens. If that doesn't seem to work out, I'll probably try the
wedge idea or something similar to make sure the mechanical connection
really solid with no gaps first before re-gluing.

Wrong choice, imo...biggest problem being if it doesn't work, you've
done really screwed up the opportunity to fix it at all easily...

My understanding is it needs fresh wood not glued before.

On Fri, 04 Mar 2005 01:47:48 GMT, Phisherman wrote:

On Thu, 3 Mar 2005 10:02:45 -0500, "V-Jay" wrote:

I have two wooden chairs that are coming apart and I want to glue them back
together. The rungs/cross-pieces that connect the chair legs together keep
coming out, which makes the chairs unstable.

In the past, I have used wood glue (carpenter's glue) to fix other wooden
chairs, but that never seems to work very well.

I was just wondering if Liquid Nails, or Contact Cement, or some other type
of glue might work better. My reason for wondering about Liquid Nails or
Contact Cement is that I think they both remain slightly flexible/elastic
while wood glue becomes brittle and seems to crack easily.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what might work best?

Thanks.


It's not the glue, but the joint. Try installing a wedge into the
tenon. If the end tenon it is not accessible (through the wood), then
try a fox wedge. This joint will lock it in place. A properly made
chair should not come apart under normal use. There is a product
called "chair lock" that you may want to try, although I have not
tested this product.