I have some wobbly arrow back chairs to repair. The legs and brace joints are coming apart. My plan was to lightly sand the tenons and holes, fill the holes with glue and shims if necessary, and then strap clamp it tight.
Which glue is appropriate for this type of fix? I’v read that standard PVA yellow glue is too flexible. Polyurethane glue doesn’t fill gaps. I’m reluctant to use epoxy since I don’t have experience with it on large joints like this ( mostly small model building stuff ).
I was going to use Titebond 3.
Is there a more appropriate glue to use that gives me ample open time, ease of use, and strength?
Replies
Depends somewhat on the kind of glue that's in there already. If it's hide glue, just clean out the loose stuff and use more hide glue, since the new glue will re-constitute the old.
Otherwise, I always used plain old yellow glue due to its impact strength. I've fixed way too many relatively new chairs assembled with two-component glues to have any faith in them for chairs. Yellow glue is good for a lot of years if the joints fit.
Scrape the old glue out and off, don't sand it. Fill any loose joints with shavings from a plane, wrapped around the (round) tenons, or just shim square tenons.
Michael
Sometimes it's the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left. Itzak Perlman, upon playing a concert on three strings at Lincoln Center after breaking a string.
exmaxxman ,
For repairs that may have some old glue still present , imo brown powder or what we used to call weldwood or urea resin marine type glue works great , and has an extemely long open time .
good luck dusty
If they are antique chairs I would only use hide glue .It bonds to existing hide glue and is reversable.PVA ,polyurathanes, epoxy,chair doctor and sometimes contact cement are the bain of antique restorers lives.
The best permanent repair adhesive to use on chairs is two part, slow set epoxy. You only have to minimally clean out the old adhesive, be sure you have a good fit and then glue. Epoxy requires some space to develop full strength so sloppy fit is a positive. Epoxy also is the only true gap filling adhesive that has any strength. In addition, epoxy as a little bit of flexibility so the racking forces that chairs are subjected to will not crack the adhesive like it does to hard, brittle glues like hide glue, urea formadehyde etc. Clamping is only to hold the parts together and heavy clamping is to be avoided.
The only caveat is that if the chair is true antique rather than just old, you may want to use a hide glue. It will mean future repairs but it won't materially affect the value.
Follow the hide glue advice with antique chairs. If the joints are really sloppy or are a mess from previous repair attempts, an epoxy would be a good choice. If we're not at that stage yet, plain old yellow glue is fine. Clean up the joints a bit and have at it. I've sometimes gone to the first - aid kit for some gauze padding which you can put over the joints and glue in if there is a little play. Cut off whatever is sticking out after the glue dries. Works good- no kidding!
-Paul
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