Teak Box Gluing and FInishing Questions

[Robert E. Lewis]

Just found the group, very amateur woodworker.

I was given an old cedar-lined teak box that belonged to my grandmother and I'm refinishing it, but I have a problem with the top:

The lid is made up of a parquet of squares set in a frame. It's not a veneer of squares across the top - the squares are the full thickness of the top, through to the underside, and they're apparently just edge-glued together. Each square is made of three pieces of aligned teak just over an inch square, and then the squares are set with the grain alternating for a checkerboard effect. The pieces making up the squares seem to be well glued, but some of the squares are loose and sagging, just a few squares here and there.

So my question is how to re-glue the parquet squares? The frame for the lid just has mitered, glued and nailed, but the glue joints at the corners all seem to be in good condition and I'd rather not take it apart to remove the squares. I think if I were to remove an individual square and apply glue to the edges, I'd never get it back in place.

And while I'm refinishing it, what's a good finish for teak? I stripped off the old, alligatored varnish and my old sailor father always taught me never to varnish teak, but to oil it, at least on a boat, but what about for a box?

Thanks.

-- Robert

[bridger]

in order to get new glue to bond to the wood you'll have to get the old glue off. if you gan *carefully* wiggle the loose squares out, clwan up the mating surfaces and slip them back into place, you can then glue them in situ with cyanoacryllate

[Dustmaker]

Can't help you on how to take it apart, but before applying new glue, I suggest you scrape the edges and then clean them with acetone. Teak has a lot of oil in it, that's why most glues won't work. I can't recommend a glue, but I'm sure it has to be in the poly family vs. hide or white. I've used Gorilla glue where I needed a really strong and weatherproof joint, but you have to be prepared to scrape off the excess (it swells as it dries) and then lightly sand the finished joint to remove the residual.

I have a sailboat that has teak on the interior and exterior. Recommend for interior that you use nothing but oil. BLO would be fine or you can spend some money and get Watco interior teak oil. Don't put any oil/varnish mix on it unless you want to refinish it periodically. I apply the oil with a

0000 steel wool pad.

On the exterior teak of my boat I use a marine product called Cetol. It's much longer lasting than varnish. Even though, it's still a b...ch to maintain the exterior teak. I think when I get old and grey I will let the teak do the same.

[Robert E. Lewis]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I don't think there's much glue between the blocks to scrape out - the box had been stored I think for years in a hot closet and when I was given it there were lines of either glue or varnish on the surface along the seams of the parquet, as though the glue had melted and run out there.

The squares had also probably shrunk as they dried out - there was no varnish on the underside of the lid, just bare wood. Just having it in a more humid environment (I live on the coast and it's been raining, humidity way up) has made the blocks fit much more tightly. I'm considering either just seeing if tapping the pieces into place and oiling it, and hoping the oil will keep the wood tight enough, or if a cyanoacrilate glue is thin enough to run into the seams and will hold on the oily teak, using that and applying the oil.

Another question: it looks like the box was originally built without any feet - just a flat bottom - but someone added what look to be four thumbtacks to raise it, and one of those is now missing. I'm thinking of replacing the tacks with either some little brass feet, if I can find some suitable, or more likely, to apply some adhesive felt-pad feet. I am wondering how well they will stick to the oily teak bottom, and if I apply something like the Watco teak oil finish, is it going be to even less satisfactory attaching self-stick pads like that?

The bad news is, the box appears to be just the right size for the cigars I infrequently smoke. I don't smoke cigars enough to warrant owning a humidor, but I'm afraid if I have a box so suitable for use as a humidor, I might smoke them more often.