Repair of flat rockers

[BillGill]

I have an old rocking chair that has flat spots on the rockers. I have started repairing them by filling the flat spots with wood putty, but I'm not sure that that will be solid enough to last over the long run. So I need a way to harden the surface to make it last. I have considered gluing strips of veneer onto the bottom surfaces of the rockers to provide the needed durability. I think this would work, but does anybody have any idea of a better way? By the way, I have some strips of veneer off of an old door that I think I can use for this.

Also what kind of glue would work best for this?

Bill

[John Grossbohlin]

I'd be inclined to either cut a wide dado (along the length of the rocker) and glue a piece of maple in the dado, or plane the bottom off flat and glue on a piece of maple... then shape it to the desired profile. I cannot imagine wood putty putting up with the stress of being on the rocker surface.

John

[Sonny]

I like to think rockers are, somewhat, my specialty, building and repairing. John's idea is perfect: Plane or joint the divot area flat, then glue either a solid piece or thin strips onto the area. I recommend multiple thin (1/8") strips, if your divot is so big that it warrants multiple strips. Re-form the arc to match the original profile.

I highly suspect some hand sanding will be required for finishing the profile. For my finish sanding, as that, I have several 2X4s X about

11.5" blocks wrapped in a 4" sanding belt (normally for my 4" belt sander). The sanding blocks are concave, length-wise, on one side matching the several different arc profiles I make. *I also have convexed blocks for the tail end of the rocker profiles that turn down.

Titebond II works well for me.

Sonny

[DD_BobK]

Bill-

John's proposed fix is an excellent approach and will give the most professional / elegant solution.

A quicker but less elegant repair would be bondo (my least favorite) or a combo of LiquidWood / WoodEpox (a filled epoxy resin that soaks in, builds up and dries harder than wood)

not a true wood workers solution but works great

cheers Bob

[RicodJour]

Sure, give the guy the easy way out. Any woodworker worth his salt would hand carve a sliding dovetail slot into the rocker and whittle a piece to fit. Extra points if it's not a constant radius curve. ;)

R

[Sonny]

We were going to recommend this, but we reserve those sliding dovetail recommendations only for samples with the best challenge, that of the radius not being constant along the worn section. BTW, I would like to see the person rocking, such that, he/she produces wear on rocker bottoms somewhere other than on a constant radius section.

If I may: What is/are the possible problem(s) as to why a rocker creeps to one side, as one rocks? *Other than rocking on a non-level surface and/or on certain kinds of carpet.

Sonny

[diggerop]

If I may: What is/are the possible problem(s) as to why a rocker creeps to one side, as one rocks? *Other than rocking on a non-level surface and/or on certain kinds of carpet.

Sonny

Old rockers seem to have that habit ........ Mick Jagger for one ; )

diggerop

[RicodJour]

One ass cheek is bigger than the other.

R

[Lew Hodgett]

RE: Subject

At the risk of promoting sacrilidge, this repair begs for fiberglass and epoxy resin.

A 2" wide roll of 6 OZ glass tape and some resin and your in business.

Build up the flat places with of layers of tape, then fair out using either a fairing board or Sonny's home made fairing blocks made from

2x4s.

Once fair, add a couple of layers of glass tape to the complete rocker bottom, trim away the excess on the sides of the rocker when cured and you are good to go.

When the rest of the chair has returned to compost, those repairs will still be functional.

Lew

[Steve Turner]

What took you so long Lew? :-)

[Leon]

Could be a caster, camber, toe in, or toe out problem. Does it pull when you break? ;~) Seriousely I would say something is out of alignment.

[BillGill]

Thanks to everybody for their comments. I will probably go with gluing up some new wood and then sanding it down. To start with I will go ahead and finish with the wood putty, and when I get it rocking smoothly I will make up a template to match that curve. Then I can do glue on the wood strips and start sanding. The templates will be handy for sanding, since if I oversand at that time I will have a problem building it back up.

Of course this all happens after I finish stripping the white paint off and pulling out the nails holding the seat to the legs, and filling holes and such like. But I should be able to get it back into pretty good shape after a while.

Bill

[Steve Turner]

I don't have a definitive answer for your specific problem, but the factors that determine the behavior of a rocking chair are similar to those that determine the correct alignment of the front wheels of an automobile: camber, caster, toe-in/toe-out, wheel radius, axle position, tire inflation, etc. The rockers must have the same radius, one fulcrum or "axle" location must not be forward of the other, the side-to-side angle of the legs (if any) must be the same, the underside of the rockers must be uniform, etc. Disparities in any one of these areas can cause the chair to wobble, walk around, or rock in a circle. Exactly which problem causes exactly which symptom is something I'd like to have explained as well. :-)

[Lew Hodgett]

You are making a lot of extra and unnecessary work for yourself.

Get a 1/2"x1/2"x1/16" aluminum angle and use it as a fairing batten.

Turn the angle so the outside corner edge is resting on the rocker forming a knife edge against the repair and slide it back and forth which will leave black line marks (aluminum oxide) on the high spots of the repair patch that need to be sanded down.

(Same procedure used to fair out boats hulls)

Mark with batten, sand then repeat.

The back of the angle also forms a knife edge against the rocker that will allow you to eyeball the high spots as well as the low spots since you will see light thru any gaps as you go.

BTDT.

Have fun.

Lew

Lew

[BillGill]

I see what you are talking about. I am concerned a bit about getting the curve right. I can see that your technique is good for getting the curve smooth, but the curve also has to have the correct radius, and it has to match on both rockers. That is what I was planning to use the template for.

Making the template isn't that big a problem. Clamp a piece of thin plywood to the side of the rocker and trace the curve on it. Then carefully cut it out to give a good curve to test against.

Thanks for the idea, I may just use that for the final smoothing.

Bill