My good people. I come to you again for some advice.
Earlier today I glued up a stool that turned. Well I got in a rush because I didn’t set myself up for success and had my crap all over the place. In my unorganized haste I accidentally swapped leg A with leg B and when I went to drive the wedge home, CRACK! goes the seat and what was one became two. Well I even more hastily reoriented the legs in the correct manner and shoved as much glue as I could in the crack and put some clamps on it. Looked like it joined back “nicely”. I’m wondering how much the leg splay/rake will help as they kind of pinch the seat together, although the split was obviously centered on one leg. I do a T style stretcher system on my stools.
I’m thinking I go in tomorrow and put a couple small butterfly keys on the top and bottom. I typically think of them as a way to limit further distortion of the wood due to internal pressure, not as a repair. Do they add any real strength on a repair like this?
Sadly this was a commission. Positive side, people love butterfly keys, just not sure they’ll actually add anything.
Replies
If you have to ask to know the answer. Start over and make a new one.
Do what you want with the broken one but its likely not sellable. Chalk it up to a learning experience.
Any visible, primary structural piece that goes 'crack' would prolly never leave my shop; not to mention compromising future client referrals.
It is hard to say, really.
The glue would like as not be stronger than the wood.
However the fact of the crack suggests some inherent weakness in the piece and therefore a good probability that it will fail alongside the glued joint later.
A perfectly fitted butterfly might well help and would be honest.
Another lesson learned was don’t half ass your wedges. I made them much too thick and was driving them with a framing hammer. I think I skipped lunch of something and was in a state.
Anyways, all that is to say I think the “inherent weakness” was driving a wedge between the grain with a bigass hammer. Surprised the leg didn’t split as I skipped the holes at the base of the kerf on this one.
Thanks for the responses guys. Yeah, I tend to agree it's no longer worthy of sale, but we'll see I guess. I could always use a new studio stool, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As someone advised earlier, this is definitely a learning experience. Being as such, I am more interested in thoughts on butterfly keys as a repair mechanism than the ethics of selling a split stool top. I'm thinking a small 3"x 1' stitch on the stop, although I don't think the split will be visible at all, and a larger one on the bottom that will actually get some nice brass slotted screws and epoxy of course. I don't own a plunge router but I think I can get this on the drill press for some forstner bit action with a depth stop. Epoxy should fill the bottom if that ends up uneven.
It was the walnut one on the right.
There is a stool seat on the floor underneath another stool. If that is the one that cracked, it could easily be repurposed to be a plant stand.
That’s what i eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches off in the shop, not kidding.
No, this stool is glued up and tenons are wedges tight, no going back from stool form now. Although I guess I could sell this at a discount as a plant stand to temper expectations. Will absolutely be sturdy enough for the average pothos or monstera delicata. Good idea.
On second though, I am going to just epoxy several splines into the top and bottom. They don’t need to be mechanical because there won’t be movement issues on this piece. I just need to reinforce the weak spot. Several if not many splines epoxied at least 3/4 of the way through the top should add a considerable amount of strength. Wabi sabi...amiright?
Thanks for allowing me the public brainstorming session.
I know I'm late to this party, but completing the split would have allowed you to add dominos on either side of the leg mortise before putting it back together.
I wouldn't give this piece to a client. No way. I'd keep it and learn from it.
If the break was clean and glued up tight, the butterfly keys and splines won't help. The glue should do just fine.
Lots of woodworkers appreciate the look of butterfly keys and the clever fix that they represent. But my impression is that to the average consumer, they look like an obvious repair job, i.e., something is broken.
As far as whether they add strength, I think you have to consider the direction of stresses that would be applied in use and whether the keys resist stress in that direction. When they are used to hold a natural crack together, the key would be in tension, not being pushed against like this situation.
Instead of using a drill press and chisels to make the "hole" for the key, this might be a time to think about a 1/4 inch plunge router kit. You can get a well rated one for under $200, or see what's on craigslist. This would be a lot easier and then you have the router for future project (repair).
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