This was a standard old wooden chair with two side rungs and one rung
front and back. With a couple of the side rungs fallen out the chair
legs began to "sag" and eventually through misuse (my relative has a
household full of children who like to tilt them) the chair more or less
collapsed. It would have been fine, of course, had the rungs been glued
back in place at the first opportunity!

Now what has happened:

1) the seat actaully split where one leg was embedded. A sliver about
3/4" wide and 1-1/4" long is bent out of the wood. I imagine it can be
glued and tapped back in place, but will it have strength to hold the
leg now?

2) one of the spindles split at the base, not a clean break either. This
is probably ideally fixed with a dowel, but is a "for now" fix with glue
acceptable if the rest of the back is properly glued and put back together?

"Dan Hartung" wrote in message
...
This was a standard old wooden chair with two side rungs and one rung
front and back. With a couple of the side rungs fallen out the chair
legs began to "sag" and eventually through misuse (my relative has a
household full of children who like to tilt them) the chair more or less
collapsed. It would have been fine, of course, had the rungs been glued
back in place at the first opportunity!

Now what has happened:

1) the seat actaully split where one leg was embedded. A sliver about
3/4" wide and 1-1/4" long is bent out of the wood. I imagine it can be
glued and tapped back in place, but will it have strength to hold the
leg now?

2) one of the spindles split at the base, not a clean break either. This
is probably ideally fixed with a dowel, but is a "for now" fix with glue
acceptable if the rest of the back is properly glued and put back
together?


Considering the damage you could do to yourself if it "let go" when you sat
down on it, I'd be inclined to toss it out and get a new one.

Doc

Dan Hartung wrote:

This was a standard old wooden chair with two side rungs and one rung
front and back. With a couple of the side rungs fallen out the chair
legs began to "sag" and eventually through misuse (my relative has a
household full of children who like to tilt them) the chair more or less
collapsed. It would have been fine, of course, had the rungs been glued
back in place at the first opportunity!

Now what has happened:

1) the seat actaully split where one leg was embedded. A sliver about
3/4" wide and 1-1/4" long is bent out of the wood. I imagine it can be
glued and tapped back in place, but will it have strength to hold the
leg now?

2) one of the spindles split at the base, not a clean break either. This
is probably ideally fixed with a dowel, but is a "for now" fix with glue
acceptable if the rest of the back is properly glued and put back together?
throw out the chair.. your back is worth more than a broken chair...
dont believer me?? just sit in it and fall over backwards and see how
long it takes for you back to heal....

According to Dan Hartung :
Now what has happened:

1) the seat actaully split where one leg was embedded. A sliver about
3/4" wide and 1-1/4" long is bent out of the wood. I imagine it can be
glued and tapped back in place, but will it have strength to hold the
leg now?

2) one of the spindles split at the base, not a clean break either. This
is probably ideally fixed with a dowel, but is a "for now" fix with glue
acceptable if the rest of the back is properly glued and put back together?

You can do virtually anything with the proper glue as long as the wood
itself still reasonably solid, and you spend enough time piecing things
back together. Modern glues (especially good carpenters glues or
regular epoxies, not "5 minute" per-se) are stronger than the wood itself
when used right.

Whether the result is "acceptable" is going to depend on a lot of things.
Like, how much is the chair really worth to you? Will you manage to avoid
abuse beyond its capability? How well built was it in the first place?

It's rarely something that anyone else can judge for you sight-unseen.

We've had some chairs we've bothered repairing only because the teddy bears
who use them have promised to treat them _very_ gently. One bear refused,
and he has to sit on the floor instead.

If it's otherwise reasonably sound and has some redeeming characteristics,
we usually repair it. But, turning new legs, for example, may be a bit
beyond what you're interested in doing.

A badly-split leg on a chair is probably beyond saving, unless you're going
to restrict it to light duty, or spend the time to use dowels or
make a new leg.

[He says, with a chair in the garage waiting for him to turn a new leg.]
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 12:59:29 -0500, Dan Hartung
wrote:

This was a standard old wooden chair with two side rungs and one rung
front and back. With a couple of the side rungs fallen out the chair
legs began to "sag" and eventually through misuse (my relative has a
household full of children who like to tilt them) the chair more or less
collapsed. It would have been fine, of course, had the rungs been glued
back in place at the first opportunity!

Now what has happened:

1) the seat actaully split where one leg was embedded. A sliver about
3/4" wide and 1-1/4" long is bent out of the wood. I imagine it can be
glued and tapped back in place, but will it have strength to hold the
leg now?

2) one of the spindles split at the base, not a clean break either. This
is probably ideally fixed with a dowel, but is a "for now" fix with glue
acceptable if the rest of the back is properly glued and put back together?


If you insist on trying to fix this chair and are wondering what kind
of glue to use then u might want to try the "Chair Doctor Pro". I
recently purchased this item from Lee Valley. It is made by Veritas of
Ogdensburg, NY and Ottawa, Canada. "The remarkable new glue that
wicks into joints, swells the wood, and locks it tight."
The kit consists of a bottle of glue and a syringe with three
different sizes of needles to get in to joints or cracks. For several
years i have been gluing the kitchen chairs off and on and knew that
they wouldnt last all that long. Just started using this new glue
product and it seems to be real good. Only time will tell but i was
very pleased with the application method and if the write-up is
correct then i expect it will last a long time. See it at
www.leevalley.com , and its not really expensive. Good luck,
Ken, makin dust in NS