Broken towel rack

The other day my towel rack broke, i.e. the bar itself, where you hang the towel. Our house was built in 1960, so the towel bar holding thingies are made out of tile and attached to the surrounding tiles via grout, as far as I can tell. We don't really want to remove them, as they are "glued" over more than one tile and we are fairly sure we'll never find the same kind of underlying tile again, if we damage it. So what I am looking for is a towel bar that has some kind of spring in it, so I could push it together, wedge it into the tile holding thingies (No, I don't want to sound cutesy, but I have no clue how those things are called.) and the spring would release and hold the bar securely in place. I kind of know they exist, because I have talked to associates in stores, who said they existed, but that their store stopped carrying them. (And of course they had no clue as to where to get them.) I live in VA and I have already checked Lowe's, Walmart and Target. I have also searched the internet, but without success. If anybody knows where to find a towel bar with springs, please tell me. or if anybody knows how to build anything that could take its place, please let me know too. Thanks! Jen

Reply to
Jen
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Is this the sort with a bar that is square in cross-section and made of wood with some sort of a shiny paint/coating over it? That is the sort that are in my 1963/64 house anyway. This sort would be fairly trivial to replace the bar in by fabricating a new bar out of a hardwood like maple, and pre-finishing it to match the proper color but making the bar just a bit (~1/8") longer than it need be. Then the bar would be split at a long angle on the tablesaw or bandsaw.

Look for the description of a "scarf joint" at:

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The ends of the pieces would then be inserted into the holders and glued back together with a strong wood glue and clamped overnight. If the cut and glueing are done properly the joint will be essentially as strong as the original wood. After the glue dries the join line can be lightly sanded and the paint retouched. There are other sorts of wood joinery that could be used in this application, finger joints for example, but the scarf joint is easy and requires no special tools or talents.

Reply to
John McGaw

That was answered about 4 days ago.

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might have been the URL offered, since it's about the same price I remember.
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are plenty more sites.

Reply to
Michael Baugh

This is Turtle.

Hey i just got through posting about this very same thing. Look back on Dec.

20,2003 at 9:20 P.M. on here at alt.home.repair where I ask this same question and Martin give this wedsite to order the replacement rods for them. There was others that give good add on post for this problem too.
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bars are the solution for the problem for they come in clear and white.

TURTLE

Reply to
TURTLE

Reply to
Phisherman

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These bars are the solution for the problem for they come in clear and

thanks turtle, been looking for one for a long time.... the nephew was doing swings on ours and pulled it out...

Reply to
jim

Thanks a bunch. You all are great. Jen

Reply to
Jen

The first thing that comes to mind--maybe just as a stopgap--is one of those expandable curtain rods with textured rubber on the ends. Not very decorative, but it'd be covered with towels... zemedelec

Reply to
Zemedelec

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