I have several loose spindles on my oak kitchen chairs and want to fix them. I know the ultimate fix would be to pin each of these with a dowel. Does the "spindle tightening glue" work or is it just a temp fix to the problem?
Clarification --- Do you mean stretchers? If so, try to disassemble the undercarriage and reglue and clamp the parts. There is a solution available that will swell the wood, but I find that re-gluing will hold longer.
That stuff doesn't work too well. The true problem here is that the chairs were not properly. Remove all the old glue, clean with acetone, a fox-keyed tenon might work.
What are they made of? How old, and how well made? When you say "oak", did that grow on an oak tree, or is it modern painted-up jummywood?
If it's 40-50+ years old, real oak, with decent construction and suffering from honest wear by racking a joint, then the "Chair Doctor" glue is good and works well. Note that it only works on loose tenons though, not worn-out or broken ones. It swells wood, it doesn't gap fill.
If it's jummywood, then the wood itself is too soft to form a firm joint by swelling a tenon. It'll swell and fit in the workshop, but a week later it's loose again.
The only adhesive I know that will gap-fill on a chair tenon is an epoxy with a suitable filler. It's a hard-working joint - lesser adhesives, like PU, just won't last.
Whatever you do, don't use a foxed wedge tenon to repair it. You can't dismantle these without breaking things in the future. As a good chair should outlast several repairs, this isn't a good thing.
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