Whether you're fixing a chair or a chest, many techniques are common to all wooden furniture repairs.
Here are some basic guidelines and hints:- Fix it before it breaks. Most breaks, unless from a serious accident or abuse, are caused by the pressures of ordinary use. If you continue to use a piece with a loosened joint, a simple fix will turn into a big one.
- Don't use nails or screws to put broken furniture back together unless they were part of the original construction. Similarly, a mending plate or L-bracket provides only a temporary reprieve before the total failure of a joint. Use glue and, if necessary, dowels or thin wooden splines.
- Use the right glue - white, yellow or hide wood glue. Yellow glue gives a bit more strength and moisture resistance but begins to set in only eight to 10 minutes vs. the 15-minute working time for white glue. Hide glue, the traditional glue for furniture, is available in ready-mixed form in hard-ware stores and home centers. It has great strength and doesn't begin setting for at least 30 minutes, so it's ideal for furniture pieces that take a long time to assemble and clamp. Don't use epoxy because it makes taking it apart nearly impossible.
- Before you take a piece apart for regluing, put on masking-tape labels with numbers or letters, and align marks on each joint. Then simply match markings when putting the item back together. You can peel the tape off without damaging the finish.
- Scrape off all the old glue so that the new glue can attach to the wood fibers. (Be careful not to remove wood or there will be gaps when you reglue).
- Or, use the old cabinetmaker's trick of dabbing on hot vinegar to loosen and remove old glue. The vinegar won't harm any finish, leaving only a white film that you can easily wipe off.
- You can make a simple device for opening stubborn chair joints by putting a threaded rod with two nuts and two washers through two blocks of wood padded with carpet. Place the padded surfaces snugly against both chair legs. Apply outward pressure slowly and evenly by alternately tightening the nuts on the inside of either block a little bit at a time.
- When clamping a glued joint, the pressure must be sufficient to bring the two pieces of wood completely together and aligned and matched the way they were originally. There should be no gaps because the glue itself has almost no strength to bridge gaps.
- Always clamp the parts of a glued joint together until the glue dries. You also can hold glued parts together with elastic tie-downs or with weights, such as books or bricks. For smaller pieces, use large rubber bands. To secure chair legs while the glue is drying, wrap two turns of rope around the legs. Tie the rope. Then insert a stick between the turns and tighten the rope like a tourniquet.
- If a furniture joint on a chair is loose and wobbly, try coating the tenon with glue and wrap it tightly with cotton thread. After the thread dries, glue the tenon into the mortise.
- You can also repair a loose joint by gluing and wrapping strips of thin porous or absorbent fabric (cheesecloth, pantyhose or cotton sheeting) around a loose tenon. Use as many layers as you need. Soak each with glue. Let the glue harden; then sand the tenon to fit and glue it in. Trim off excess material with a utility knife.