I have some old Windsor-like dining chairs that I took apart a few years ago to strip them of their (very ugly) paint. I put them together again using wood glue, and they were fine for a few years, but now, some of the bottom rungs are frequently coming apart. I have put some glue in the holes again, but it doesn’t seem to help. Is there a different type of glue I should be using, or should I be putting nails in?
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Replies
New glue won't stick to old glue. You need to disassemble the chairs and carefully clean all the old glue out of the sockets and off the rung ends before you re-glue. That said, once these joints loosen up, they may become too loose to ever be properly glued and will require more drastic repairs.
If that's the case, you can use a gap-filling epoxy, but even that is not a permanent fix, since the epoxy doesn't move as the wood expands & contracts with seasonal movement, resulting in crushed wood fibers and eventual re-loosening of the joint.
Windsor-like reproductions made by furniture factories simply can't duplicate the wood engineering marvel that is the authentic Windsor, many of which remain tight and sound hundreds of years after their construction by craftstmen using simple hand tools and a carefully selected combination of woods.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
I've never built a windsor but have studied the technique. The old masters used a type of locking / expanding joint (forget what they called it), so when the rungs went in they'd never come out. The mortise was not a straight tube: it was flared on the inside.
One thing you might try, and it takes some testing to get it right, is this. Cut a slot in the end of the rung and make a very small wedge to match it, that, when slammed into the joint with glue, will expand the rung just enough to make it tight.
Edited 2/11/2008 9:21 am ET by blewcrowe
Tusk tenon.
Ah. Thanks. I'd forgotten the term.
Don,
Actually, a tusk tenon is a through tenon which is wedged on the outside by a wedge piercing the protruding tenon at right angles. The stretcher of a knockdown trestle table is an example. R. Underhill claims that this joint is popular in Alabama, where, he says, "the tusks are looser".
The tenon referenced above I've heard called a "blind 'foxed' tenon".
Ray
R. Underhill claims that this joint is popular in Alabama, where, he says, "the tusks are looser".++++++++++++++++++++Ray, I see Roy's punning has -- or has not, depending on one's viewpoint -- improved since high school in the late sixties.Leon
"R. Underhill claims that this joint is popular in Alabama, where, he says, "the tusks are looser".
This is actually a variation on a line from a Marx Brothers film, wherein Groucho claimed to enjoy elephant hunting in Alabama for the same reason.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
I agree that blind fox tenons are a good approach, but it does require a bit of skill to get it right.
A less challenging, but generally effective approach:
1. pull the joints apart and clean the old glue out
2. plane some wood shavings as wide as the joint is deep
3. slather the wood shaving with glue and wrap it around the ends of the tenons. You can either let them dry and test the fit, or just jump to the next step
4. Put the joint back together
It usually doesn't take much more than a single wrap with a thin (less then 1/64" thick!) wood shaving to create a snug joint again. Without putting more wood into the joint, glue (space filling or not) will eventually break loose.
Good luck,
-t
One point not directly mentioned. NEVER use a nail or a screw to try to fix such a joint. It only has any effect for a short while, and then does so much damage that it may become difficult to ever repair the chairs again.
One idea is to pull the chairs apart and use hot hide glue to put the chairs back together. If the chairs loosen up again, you can knock 'em apart and reglue with hide glue - new stuff activates the old stuff...This is a traditional method of assembling the chairs that makes future repair easy...Tom Iovino
Tom's Workbench
http://tomsworkbench.com
Thank you all for your suggestions. I think I will try the wood-shavings approach first, and see how it goes. I'll keep you posted.
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