gluing up antique chairs - type of glue?

[Trent]

I am in the process of gluing up some old oak chairs that have come loose at the joints. What type of glue would you recommend? I usually use titebond II for all my glue ups, is this good for chairs?

[Chris Friesen]

TitebondII is a PVA glue. This type of glue is difficult to repair if the joint breaks again in the future (which it almost certainly will).

Ideally you should dismantle the loose joints, figure out why they're loose, and then repair them.

You might consider a more easily repairable glue like hide glue. Liquid hide glue (available under the Titebond brand, among others) should do the job, although hot hide glue is somewhat better under very high relative humidity.

I suggest reading "How To Repair Furniture Joints " at "

".Chris

[C & S]

Hide... it's reversable and you want reversable for a chair, because you can't really fix a single chair joint without disassembling half the chair.

The titebond folks make a hide glue in a bottle so you don't have to fuss with double-boilers and such.

-Steve

[Phisherman]

I am currently doing some repair work on wooden chairs (replacing tenons, removing old glue, etc.) I am using Elmers Wood glue, but I would trust any brand-name yellow wood glue. Some of the mortises are very deep and in that case I allow a full 24+ hours in the clamps and put a 25-watt bulb underneath to help the curing process.

[randyswoodshoop]

Your best bet is hide glue if you have access to it.

You can use titebond or any yellow glue, but all surface must be sanded and the old glue removed. Chances are the old glue is hide glue and pva or yellow glue will not stick to the old hide glue.

Randy

for the woodwroker

[B A R R Y]

Chair Loc on the shrunken tenon.

[Chris Friesen]

This will work once or twice, but then you're hosed because you can't re-glue it without scraping/sanding off all the glue. Hide glue is reversible and new hide glue will stick to old hide glue.

Chris

[Fred the Red Shirt]

Hide glue.

The real stuff, melted in a glue pot and applied warm is the original hot melt glue and has been used since the time of the Pharohs. It might not last as long other glues, but it can be repaired innumerable times--other glues are very hard to reverse, clean out of the joint, and reglue.

Hide glue is also available now in a liquid form in a squeeze bottle making it as easy to use as any other glue.

The great violin makers of Cremona, Italy used hide glue and their violins have been disassembled and reassembled numerous times over the centuries.

[J. Clarke]

Are these real antiques that have significant collector value, or are they just old? If they're real antiques then as others have suggested, hide glue is likely the best way to go--full reversibility is more important than any other consideration. There are other fully revesible glues available--Paraloid B72 and AthenaTech "Magiglue" are two examples--but none have the track record of hide glue, which also has the advantage of authenticity--it is likely what was used for the original bond.

Using it though is going to require complete disassembly and likely cleaning the joints.

If they're just "old chairs" of no particular value and you can disassemble them and clean off the old glue, then there are other options.

There is no perfect "chair glue"--the ones with enough flex to not loosen after a few humidity cycles also have enough flex that the chair seems wobbly, while the ones that give you a stiff chair tend to loosen up over time. Bruce Hoadley described an experiment with silicone caulk in Fine Woodworking #21

(note, you need to subscribe to the Fine Woodworking site to see that one) that resulting in joints that lasted a long time but the chair was permanently wobbly. One fellow reports very good success with Gorilla Glue but others disagree. Personally I've been experimenting with G2 Epoxy but my oldest project with it is less than a year old so can't say if it really does anything good or not. 3M 5200 might be worth consideration--it makes a very strong bond (as caulk goes) but is about twice as hard as silicone caulk.

Note that if you are using G2 Epoxy or 3M 5200, the chances of getting the joint apart again (unless it comes apart on its own) without destroying the chair in the process range from slim to none.

If you're just looking for a quick fix, Chair Doctor

works.

[Soby1]

Use hide glue on an antique. Hide glue can be disassembled by wetting it an reassembled. It's the type of glue that should have been used originally and is what you should use again, so the piece can be re-repaired 25 years from now.