I have a 19th century wooden screen porch I'm repairing. I have two specific problems.
First, of the extant frames I've glued and clamped all the joints with Titebond II. Most of these butt joints are still held together with rusty corrugated staples (from who knows when) and long galvanized nails (from about 20 years ago), and were pretty gooey if they held together at all. The gluing seems to be holding well and the frames are square again. (Too bad the porch isn't!) Was this a good strategy? I was rushed trying to finish by labor day and didn't really prepare the surfaces any, or remove any of the old hardware, figuring this might get it all to hold for a few years. I bought some mending plates -- corner flats -- but didn't ultimately use them, the gluing worked so well.
(Side question: does anyone make T-flats smaller than 3"x3"? I could have used a smaller one on the interior braces.)
There are a few problem joints. One is like this:
BBCAAAAA BBCAAAAA BBC BBC BBB BBB BBB
A and B are the frame parts, and C is a big 6" splinter that came out, exposing the corrugated staples and cutting the joint area between A and B in half. I *know* this won't hold. Ultimately I should probably splice the top 6" of frame B with new wood, or can I get by with chiseling out splinter C and putting in a partial splice? I think that I should replace the nail through B into A with a screw, at least (I'm not experienced with dowels).
Next is a new frame we had made by a neighbor a couple of years ago, to replace one of the originals that was too deteriorated. It's since had (I think) a brace G shrink, putting a pronounced bow in frame B:
{for monospace font}
DAAAAAAAAAB D F B D F B D F B D F B DEEEEFGGGB D F B D F B D F B D F B DCCCCCCCCCB
What's the best way to handle this? I could just plane inside of B so that it looks straighter -- the concave side of the bow is hidden behind a quarter-round. But it's pretty prominent on a corner. Should I just knock out G and put in something longer?