I have a friend who asked me to repair a chest and I wanted an opinion on my idea on how to repair it. The chest has the back piece that was broke and the back of the lid was dovetailed. I can push the piece back in but it was doweled from the top also. I do not want to drill out the original dowels and put new ones in, that would just not look right. I plan on drilling with a forstner bit about 3/4 of the way on the lid from the inside of the chest but not go through the top it and then drill out the holes on the mating back piece. Then I would insert springs into the hole on the back piece and glue it slide the back piece in so that when the dowel mates to the mating hole on top the it would pop into the hole on the top and the glue would dry, does this seem reasonable or does someone have another solution,.
Thanks,
Toolfreak
Replies
failures vs. repairs
When planning reapirs, it is often a good idea to determine what caused the failure in the first place. It is difficult to tell from the photo, but it looks like the original design did not correctly allow for seasonal movement, and the top panels may have forced the back section away from the mating pins on the side piece. If so, your repair should provide a work-around for the design flaw, or it, too, will be doomed to fail.
Tool,
I'd suggest driving the broken pins (dowels) out of the top board, from the bottom side. Save the broken pins, and mark them so you can re-place them in the holes they came from. Drill out the broken pins from the back board, then re-glue the back board's dovetails back into place. Once dry, you can drive slightly shorter pins into the holes in the top, driving them into the back board, and below the surface of the top. Trim the old broken pins off short, coat with glue, and drive them back into their holes, covering the tops of the new pins. Be sure to cut the old ones short enough that you can drive them flush with the surface of the top; they don't need to be much more than 1/8" long to stay put.
In driving out the broken pins, it may help to support the top on a scrap piece of some really soft wood, white pine, luaun, or basswood. Then whack the pins with a drift to start them out of their holes.This will drive them slightly into the surface of your support board, and prevent the top board from splintering out around the pin as it lets go. Once they are started (1/32-1/16") you can do away with the support board, just go on and drive them out.
Finally, you might want to consider attaching a length of cord or light chain between the chest and the lid, to prevent the lid from being dropped, and falling all the way open. This is usually what causes the damage you are trying to repair.
Ray
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