I’ve been asked to repair a wooden chair. The chair frame is open, with four ~1/4″ horizontal metal pegs at the four corners, pegged into the vertical wood members of the chair legs, which support the padded, plywood seat. A #6×3/4″ screw passes through each metal peg, and screws into the bottom of the plywood seat. Over time, one screw fell out, the metal peg wore a larger hole, and eventually fell out, cracking the the bridle joint between the front leg and side stretcher. I can fix most of the wood damage, but I am struggling with how to repair the damaged enlarged metal peg hole. I see two options.
1. Repair the wood damage (probably with epoxy), then fill the enlarged metal peg hole with more (different?) epoxy, let it set, and drill it out to the correct size. Is any epoxy strong enough to take this kind of stress? Any epoxy suggestions?
2. Glue a sacrificial 1/4″wooden dowel into the damaged peg hole with epoxy. When the epoxy has set, drill a larger hole (say 1/2″) for a properly sized wooden dowel. Glue in the dowel (epoxy again), and then when it sets, drill the proper hole for the metal peg. Should the dowel be cross gran or end grain (I can make my own from scrap).
3. Any better ways to do this?
Thanks for the consideration;
Vic
Replies
A picture would help.
Chairs can be subject to large forces so I'd go for the strongest repair - drill out the damage and fit a cross-grain plug/dowel to make the wood as good as new. Your pin should hold in that for a long time.
Have a squiz at this channel for some really expert advice https://www.youtube.com/c/ThomasJohnsonAntiqueFurnitureRestoration
If by metal peg hole, you mean th hole is in a metal piece, there are a variety of metal filled repair epoxies available that are often used to repair damaged threads, and cracks in metal parts and they are machinable. I have no idea if they would hold up under your usage conditions but you may wish to investigate them. McMaster-Carr has a wide variety.
If the hole is in a wooden part and the peg is metal, I'd go with the previous recommendation.
Thanks for the very helpful comments. Here are a couple of photos; the damaged left side, and the undamaged right side of the chair.
It looks like it could be teak. If I had that in my shop to repair I would start by wiping the mating surfaces with acetone to remove surface oils. Then I would use thin epoxy to glue the little piece back in. I would coat both surfaces with epoxy and then mix in a wee bit of wood flour (sanding dust not saw dust) to thicken the epoxy, add a little of that to the surface and clamp tightly. The thin epoxy will soak into the wood while you are mixing the thickened stuff. Then the thickned stuff will fill any small gaps. Put clear packing tape around the area to prevent any squeeze out from sticking to the chair.
You could epoxy the pin in at the same time or, if you don't want to epoxy it, mix up some thickned epoxy and fill the hole. Once the epoxy has cured, drill it out for the pin.
By the way, I wouldn't use the 5-minute epoxy for this. I would use epoxy that you pump out of jugs. A lot of folks use West System. I've had very good service from RAKA epoxy. You can thicken epoxy with all sort of stuff. If you use fumed silica (wear a mask!) and mix it to peanut butter consistency, you can drill and tap it to receive screws. That's sometimes done on boats for deck hardware.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled