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I have a 30 to 40 year old Dinning room chair that has repeatedly had some
of the cross spindles come out of the legs, I've reglued with standard
yellow glue but they just keep loosening up. My question is could the
original builder have used hide glue to assemble and is it possible that the
hide glue is interfering with the bond of the new glue?? I'm at the point I
might glue them back in and pin the joint with a wooden dowel to keep it in
place but would rather not. Not all of the spindles are loose so i can't
completely disasemble the chair for a real reglue so any help would be
appreciated.

Thanks

Bill

Hide glue question
 

Bill wrote:
I have a 30 to 40 year old Dinning room chair that has repeatedly had some
of the cross spindles come out of the legs, I've reglued with standard
yellow glue but they just keep loosening up. My question is could the
original builder have used hide glue to assemble and is it possible that the
hide glue is interfering with the bond of the new glue?? I'm at the point I
might glue them back in and pin the joint with a wooden dowel to keep it in
place but would rather not. Not all of the spindles are loose so i can't
completely disasemble the chair for a real reglue so any help would be
appreciated.

Bill,
I have had very good success using polyurethane (Gorilla) glue on chair
rungs & such. Never had one come loose yet, and some have been in
daily use for five years after regluing.

DonkeyHody
"You may not always get what you pay for, but you always pay for what
you get."

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DonkeyHody wrote:

I have had very good success using polyurethane (Gorilla) glue on
chair rungs & such. Never had one come loose yet, and some have
been in daily use for five years after regluing.

Absolutely and positively I second that... hell, I'll even third that.
Used polyurethane glue on several chairs and they are still rock solid
a few years later. I've used 2 brands of poly glue, one of which was
Gorilla Glue. They were nearly the same but I just got a better vibe
using Gorilla Glue. It seemed to be "better" than the other brand...
but it could have been my imagination.

At any rate, disassemble what you can, scrape off as much loose glue
as possible from the joints. The joints don't have to be super tight.
A little loose fitting is ok. Wipe a medium film of gorilla glue on
each side of each joint and assemble. Too much glue is better than not
enough. No need to clamp exactly, but since the glue expands, it would
be a good idea to immobilize the chair parts so that the joints do not
expand apart.

Since the glue expands, you can use this feature to fill gaps in the
assembly. Remember that a gap filled with tough glue is stronger than
a gap filled with air.

Allow several hours to dry. Ideally you'll see the glue foaming and
oozing out. Let it. Don't mees with the glue until it's fully dry (at
least 8 hrs). When it's dry, the excess should chip/scrape off fairly
easily with a chisel.

On my chairs, I left the excess oozed glue remain on the underside
where the legs go into the seat. Seems to me it adds a wee bit of
strength and nobody can see it.

Hope that helps.

Joe Barta