I’ve been called on to fix the base on a teak, trestle table. The wedged tenon joints across the bottom of the table have failed, causing the table to rack. I’m concerned about a few things. First, the mortises, after filing off most of the glue, still have pockets of glue caused by slight imperfections in the mortise. How worried should I be about these pockets? I’m going to cut down the bottom board and redo the tenons so I won’t have any old glue on those.
Second is what type of glue I should use. I seem to remember that epoxy is the best bet for oily woods such as teak, but I can’t find that article anymore.
My last concern is that the table top is extremely heavy. It consists of 3/4 ply, 3/4 cement board and then tile. And the table is big. I estimate the top to be around 200 pounds. So I was thinking of adding another board roughly the same size as the bottom board (1 3/4″ thick, 5″ wide, and 60″ long) just under the table top to help give it some more diagonal support. Any thoughts
thanks
Replies
Yes, with only a bottom stretcher between the two trestles, I would worry about racking. Your solution makes sense to me.
I have used epoxy on teak. One thing often mentioned is to wipe down the teak with a solvent such as acetone shortly prior to glueing to remove excess oil from the surface. But do let the acetone evaporate fully, since acetone will weaken the epoxy joint. Epoxy should handle moderate sized bits of remaining glue on the mortise. You don't want the "five minute" type epoxy glue, but the regular slower curing version.
There are two schools of thought on prepping the joints with acetone or similar products: it works and the others think that prepping the joint actually leads to joint failure.
Regarding glues, the traditional glue for teak furniture repair is to remove the debris and re-glue using hide glue. For years for teak used in marine applications, the glue of preference is Resorcinal. For your project I would imagine that any good epoxy with cotton fiber filler would work very well.
Try a Google search on "gluing teak"
Thanks for your imput, I'll look into using acetone to prep it.
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