# Antique Chair repair help needed



## dycmark (Dec 23, 2014)

My brother decided to volunteer me to repair a 1960s? chair that apparently means something to a guy he works with. this thing has been poorly repaired a 1/2 dozen times so I had no choice but to replace the broken parts. 

The wood is hard to identify, I believe it is some flavor of Oak. It is very very dry. light end grain pairing cuts on end grain result in dust. It looks like it may have been ebonized, The B.L.Marble Chair company of Bedford Ohio seems ot have been known for their walnut chairs but they built a number of other species with that period dark walnut finish. 

Anyhow, the wood is really dry, I have cleaned out the mortises and am cutting new tenons in the new parts. I do have 1 existing tenon that will need to be used and it also concerns me. I am considering pinning it from the bottom. I also have the single dowel in the seat for placing the leg. There was a pair of cross dowels used in the back support board on the bottom to secure the leg in place. I was unable to replace because it appears that this rear seat support seems to be glued now and I cant get it of without doing more damage. The front dowel broke out and that piece was not provided to me so i cant really do much with that without serious surgery. 

I am wondering what the best adhesive/glue would be for me to use in this case. the dryness of the wood greatly concerns me. should I wet the wood and use gorilla glue? CA? I have TB1 and TB2 and could certainly pick up TB3 if necessary. 

My brother is coming home for Christmas and will be returning home on the 27th and needs to take the chair back with him. I am looking for some suggestions on the adhesive to use for this. this is my 1st go at hand cut mortise and tenon (which doesn't really concern me at all) but if i take the time to get that right I sure as heck would like to think that it will stay together at least for a while.


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## Schroedc (Dec 23, 2014)

I've repaired several old pieces of furniture and if you can get ALL the old glue off and the joints are reasonably tight I'd say TB2 or 3. If you can't I might lean to some type of high strength epoxy.


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## Mike1950 (Dec 23, 2014)

You can see why they failed- lots of glue will not make joint strong- tight joints with a little glue will. Good advise above- clean the glue off. I would use titebond- looks like oak to me.


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## DKMD (Dec 23, 2014)

I don't have much experience with furniture repair, but I'd be tempted to drill out the existing dowels and use a larger size. On the square tenons, I would think you could use thin strips of hardwood to build up the tenons to create the tight joints you're after... You could always trim them back down with a plane or sharp chisel.

If the wood is degraded, a little wood hardener should help firm things up... If I used the hardener, I'd probably use epoxy for the joints since I don't know how well TB would stick to the hardener.


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## Kevin (Dec 23, 2014)

That chair was probably manufactured in NC by one of the first of many many factories that were going to cheaper labor, cheaper materials, and running a mix of 50+ year old machines and a few updated ones, but that were already not fully committed to update (but swearing to their employees they were) because they saw the writing on the wall. They made one more 5 to 10 year gasp at making a profit before bankruptcy. That was a model many companies of all types followed in the late 60's through the 70's and it paved the way for the big 80s "takeovers" of the larger ones that still had enough money held by stockholders who would soon learn the sad lesson of trusting a corrupt government, backed by a lawless judiciary willing to rubber stamp the many laws passed by congress that endorsed the downfall of our country. And that chair represents the whole rotten philosophy; just squeeze a bunch of glue into a lousy joint. After all it'll last just long enough that we won't have to sit in it.

Anyway, yeah I would skip the glue and go with epoxy. The joinery was shot from the beginning.

I hope that wasn't more information than you were seeking. I apologize for my rant if it was it just sparked a memory I had when visiting kin in Morganton NC in my youth and hearing them cuss and discuss these things; I can still hear their accents and their passion about this topic. I can still taste their awful bar-b-que as well but that's a different story . . .

Reactions: Agree 1


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## dycmark (Dec 23, 2014)

working on it now, i have cleaned the mortises out, it is hard to tell if i am getting out all of the glue. i started cleaning them out last night before the pics and then relized it was 2am... 

i am worried that this massive amount of who knows what has corrupted viable wood gor glue, but i havent gotten quite far enough yet to tell, I am working tonight on getting all hte mortise/tenons roughed in on the new pieces.

This wood is SUPER dry, some of the paring cuts just turn to dust... thast also concerns me as far as adhesion goes, why i almost wondered if CA was not an option.

Thanks for all the input (and rants are ALWAYS welcome, isnt that kinda the point?) 

Mark


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## barry richardson (Dec 24, 2014)

If the wood is clean in the area to be joined, and the joints are tight, regular wood glue will do, looks like that's not the case here. Epoxy is what I would use and put some shims in the joints if they are real sloppy, like doc said. I would definitely not use Gorilla glue (the poly kind)


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## Mike1950 (Dec 24, 2014)

My understanding of CA is that it is brittle- probably not the best in a chair. Maybe to stabelize the wood. I remember how much luck I had fixing chairs very similar. Good luck.


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## elnino (Jan 14, 2015)

I just heard a talk from a guy all about glue and the different types of glue. He was def saying this topic comes up often and many good solutions to the problem. I would probably use hide glue personally but only because I think the repair might last a bit longer if it worked maybe another generation would avoid a fix. TB on an old hide glue joint will fail because the glue soaks in and seals the wood. After the tb drys it will not stick to anything and come apart


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