Got a call from a friend, his father sat in a wedding-present rocking chair that was his grandparents, and cracked it in two places. Friend wants me to look at it and see if it can be fixed. I have not seen it yet and so have no idea what the problems are, but considering the age of the chair (75-100 yrs maybe) and assuming a simple crack or clean break, how would you go about repairing it? I assume there are no loose pieces, so I won’t be able to put a dowel in the break, which sort of narrows the choices down to glue and a temporary splint. What kind of glue?
Do it right, or do it twice.
Replies
Hard to say until you can tell us which parts broke. As far as glue goes, it was probably original glued with hot hide glue, which would be in your favor as far as repairs go -- easy to refresh.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
If the "break" is a joint that came apart, then I agree with the hide glue. But my guess is that maybe a spindle or an arm broke. Apparently dad is rather large and should not have been in the chair, but it's too late for that. Assuming an actual break in the wood, what glue would be best.
Do it right, or do it twice.
I don't know, but I'll lay a bet that the experts say epoxy.
Sheesh! the wind's gusting about 50mph out there, i'd better scoot!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
There are horses for courses .Define the problem before trying to solve it!Hide glue is the favorite for antique restoration but not for some structural repairs if the chair is to be used
El CID, If you take the split seat and run the split sections through your table saw to create a blind dado groove then using 1/8' baltic birch plywood for a 'Blind Spline' You can glue and clamp it together with Liquid Hide Glue.
When cutting the 'Kerf', be sure to run the flat bottoms along the fence, as the seat's surface is sculpted. Stein.
Thanks to all for the worthless ideas :) I have seen the chair, and none of us were even close. It's definately an old oak rocker, with lots of sentimental value, but certainly no real value. It has been repaired more than once already, and not well. The current problem is two busted spindles under the arm, and the back 2" of seat has split along the spindle line. Considering the previous fixes and the clients request, I will reglue the split and reinforce with plugged screws.
Apologizies to steinmetz...he was close and I might try to use his method.
Do it right, or do it twice.
Edited 10/18/2003 11:57:54 PM ET by ELCID72
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