I need to repair a couple of drawers that have dried out dovetail joints. 2 drawers, maybe 16 pins.
I don't need anything like a full West Systems kit of epoxy and filler, but I need something other than straight wood glue to fill in the gaps.
I could try wood glue and sawdust, but I'm wondering if there is something better/neater.
Thanks.
If it were me, I, like you, would not go the West System, because you have to buy way more than you need I would use a quality epoxy (almost any quality brand) as its the best at both adhesion and gap filling.
Hide glue, when old, turns to dust; the deterioration is the result of (according to lore) a slow-acting fungus.
That doesn't loosen the wood, though; disassemble, brush away the dust, rinse with boiling water, and reapply hide glue. It'll stick fine, even if the old glue doesn't completely come off.
Oher similar joints in that piece are also liable to need work.
Make shims for the pins to fill if they've shrunk, don't just try to fill. Pictures would help...
The "way more" is exactly what I'm trying to avoid. ;-)
Back in my Soap Box Derby days I was buying the stuff by the gallon. I had pumps, mixers, rollers, different kinds of filler, etc. Just don't need it anymore.
I thought I kept some filler when I tossed all the old liquids, but I can't find it. I just need a little bit.
There's lots of West Systems products built into this bad boy.
This is the worst of the 2 drawers. The other one can probably be fixed with just glue.
Something did:
Will hide glues fill those gaps?
Just some split grooves along some rails and one glue joint that opened up. Already repaired. See my other thread about this piece, entitled:
"Back Panels On Desk - Cutting Error, Modification or Design Feature?"
More pictures there.
On 2/24/2019 10:01 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote: ...
That's basically the way those fit from new; you'll do more damage messing with them than you'll fix. Leave 'em alone.
$0.20, imo, ymmv, etc., etc, etc., ...
If the drawer sides will disassemble easily, then just reglue and go on. That one on the LHS was miscut initially by tracking wrong side of the line w/ the sawcut.
As another noted, if this is pretty old and you can tell, reuse hide glue so don't do anything irreversible.
Unfortunately, I can't leave them alone. The previous image was when I was squeezing the joint tight to show the gaps. This shows that it's completely unglued.
As far as disassembly, that may be the best I can/want to do. The joints on the back of the drawer are solid. I might be able to loosen up the other side and get the whole front off, but they somehow attached the track on the bottom (that rides along the center rail) to the drawer bottom and front. The track may be glued into a groove on the drawer front.
Further investigation is required.
...
Far better picture for the purpose...that shows the end of the tail on RH is split from the drawer side and stuck in the front.
The gum being pretty soft has compressed some; the dovetail angles weren't sharp-enough for the softer wood. Can't do much about those problems now unless going to completely recut both.
This does show there is room for some shim material to refit the tails to their sockets; the way one does this is to glue a piece of veneer or the like to the tail then re-machine back down to the needed size--basically it's _verysharp_ chisel/handwork time.
Ideally you could retrieve the broken tail piece from where it is and reglue it before reassembling rather than just try to glue the break in situ.
Whatever you do, don't just start dribbling epoxy or the like all over everywhere.
Sorry - I can't offer any tried & true advice - but would appreciate it greatly if you re-post your results after you've made the repairs. I bet there isn't anyone reading who hasn't had this same situation with old drawer dovetails. I thought of Chair Doctor but it needs to soak in and expand the wood fibers - will not work if the old glue is sealing the wood too much. and it doesn't provide any gap filling - it is quite watery. John T.
On 2/24/2019 10:49 AM, dpb wrote: ...
The LH side of the RH pin is almost dead-straight, almost no angle at all...if I could get it apart, I'd be strongly tempted to recut that socket to have an angle matching the RH (broken) side and add the stock to the pin to match.
The second-from-left is also almost perfectly straight with what is left of the pin--looks like there may be some missing material there as well. That socket is pretty good in dimension, making a new pin to fit if very will would be a goal.
Can't tell for sure about the leftmost one, there's the glueline of the side material right at the point where the pin is cut; it looks again like there's some missing material there that split off either orignally, even, maybe or has since broken and looks to be gone. There's that little triangular broken piece on the drawer front; back where it began if there's enough to reglue it and would have a decent socket angle there.
The middle just needs a little extra material to fill in the space...
It's tedious work at best, unfortunately. I did something similar to drawers on the work clothes dresser in the basement a few years ago...they were in far worse shape and ended up ripping down the side of the drawer and replacing the bottom 1" or so with new pins cut to match.
They had had nails and other hardware inserted over the years that had really split and sundered pieces--you at least have (mostly) intact starting point. The soft gum with the shallow angle is the major issue of why they failed.
If the object of the exercise is just to make the joint solid and not to make a career out of it I'd tape the surface of the joint, cur the dovetailprofile in the tape, and inject an expanding urethane glue (gorilla) into the joint, then clamp it together while the glue expands. When the glue is curets use a blade to remove the excess and remove the tape for a nice neat "repair" The expanded urethane will fill all the gaps makingit a tight fit even if the glue doesn't "stick" to everything Drill a fine hole from the top and the bottom and insert a snug fitting finish nail or wire from each end to re-enforce the joint if you like - to keep the joint from "working" loose.
Sure, there are "better" ways to fix it, theoretically, that involve more precise "woodwork" and show off your "craftemanship" - but if the intent is just to repair the drawer, this will work,
As long as you never have to fix it again.
At my age if I do a reasonable repair it mon't be me next time - - -
On 2/24/2019 12:40 PM, Clare Snyder wrote: ...
So would just running a 3" #10 screw through the drawer front...
Except my solution will not be visible to a casual observer, and will be hard to see even if you know what you are looking at.
No it wouldn't - it would destroy it.
I'm with Dr. Deb. I would try epoxy first because it's thin enough to seep into those cracks when you push it in with a finger. If that didn't work, I would try Gorilla-type glue because it expands to fit the crevices. You'd have to do trim the excess glue when done.
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