Something Different For a Change

[Leon]

Instead of creating I did some repair work on an old walnut table. The customer contacted me about an old table that had a broken leg. As it turns out it had two broken legs and the third was loose. The table has a fold down leaf on each end and pulled apart for a center leaf.

This link shows the worst of the three legs and obviously some one before me has made repairs. Notice the finish nail protruding through the bottom of the top. Part of the leg was still attached to that tenon on the apron.

Hardware to hold the end leafs up.

Part number 768

One of the original hinges, a few had been replaced by the typical galvanized "Stanley" hardware type hinges. And closer inspection seems to reveal That the aprons, maybe the legs too were oak.

The old way of making pocket holes for attaching the apron to the walnut top. It appears a flat bottom hole was drilled at an angle from the bottom up. Than a screw was inserted through the side of the hole. Oh, and those steel strait blade wood screws were great. No bit slippage at all.

Reassembled

And with the end leafs extended.

I did numerous repairs to split aprons and used epoxy to reglue all of the apron tenons back onto the legs. And I added some additional modern day pocket holes and screws. I think I removed a dozen finish nails that were in strange places.

[Sonny]

Looks like a nice old table. Interesting details and hardware. Good job.

What the heck are those pock marks, on the underside? Those have me baffl ed. I suppose, no telling why they're there.

Your project reminds me of a somewhat similar aged rectangle walnut table I have been wanting to repair and refinish. I recently removed it from the (now) Observatory (previously the hand tool room behind the garage). A nei ghbor was to toss it to the road. She had used it as a gardening/planting table. No fold-down end leaves and the inside leaves are missing.

Sonny

[G Ross]

Beautiful table. I undertook to repair a pedestal table which was probably as old as I am. It had also been "repaired" in the past with nails and glue. At least all the parts were there.

[Leon]

I meant to post that picture, thanks for bringing that up. Those are numerous and close together on both fold down leaves. They were also on the main table sections but not as evident.

Something I also noticed is that the edge detail around the perimeter of the table was not consistent. I wonder if the tool used to create the perimeter edge treatment only cut small lengths at a time and had to be more closely placed on the rounded sections.

[Leon]

It was a nice piece and well built, no telling how old it was.

[clare]

Sure looks like "clamp tracks"

[Leon]

Agreed, but completely around the whole table top with somewhat consistent spacing on the curved sections. I think it was a part of the manufacturing process vs. something an owner may have mounted on the table.

[Jack]

You say "great"? I assume you mean for slotted screws. High quality slotted screws don't slip when using a properly fitting quality screw driver. Using power drivers not so much. I've long ago tossed all remaining slotted screws I own. If they still make them, they shouldn't... Philips screws look best, and work second only to torx screws. IMNSHO they could quit making all the rest.

[Leon]

Yes

High quality

Actually with these quality steel slotted screws it did not matter what size straight blade driver I used. I started with a 1/4' blade and ended up using a 3/8" tipped because the handle was bigger and I could apply more torque. The slots in the screws did not show any signs of every being rounded off.

Using power drivers not so much.

It is OK if you can keep the bit in line with the screw, hard to do with a drill type driver. With a standard or Yankee style driver not a problem.

I've long ago tossed all

I prefer to not use them at all but in this case I would imagine that this was all that was available when the table was manufactured.

If they still make them, they

I prefer torx/star over square/Robertson but square/Robertson over Philips. For me it is much easier to find quality square and torx than a quality Philips.

[whit3rd]

That's a lovely detail (but a little frightening, overtightening a flathead screw would split the grain). Kreg screws are better (if you don't wnat to conserve the article for a museum). The tiny scoops for screwdriver clearance look like knife-whittled work: I approve!

Speaking of splitting the grain, I hope the underside of that lovely wood top is somewhat sealed.

[Leon]

Yes but Kreg's grand father may not have been born yet. I did add several Kreg style screws but I hope that will not be a problem. While what you mentioned could be true, splitting the grain, the countersink head could pivot in the over sized holes to allow for the top to expand and contract.

The tiny

Not that I could tell, only finished on the outside of the apron. the inside of th apron appeared to be unfinished. BUT then again, it has held up for a very long time as is.

[Leon]

Well looking again, there does appear to have some type finish in the inside of the apron, but not where the apron and legs were mounted.

[nailshooter41]

Nicely done! I like doing projects like that because it takes a different skill set as well as imagination. Thanks again for posting your pics of the project.

All of those little details you found like the unfinished areas, the ULTRA cool number on the leg, even the previous repairs... all part of that piece 's story. Not to take away from anyone's build efforts, but working with a fine old piece to give it a little more life (even if it wasn't really spec ial in its day) makes me smile.

Robert

[Leon]

Thank you.

Yeah, you have to wonder what tools they had to work with back then. the owner thought the table was hand made, It did have some apparent inconsistencies, especially around the perimeter of the top, but evidence that a larger power tool was used for cutting the recess for the hinges and the slots in the legs to receive the apron tenons.

[dpb]

On 05/09/2017 12:30 AM, [e-mail] wrote: ...

In TN, SWMBO shared a booth with a couple friends in one of the galleries; they drug home a "veritable plehtora" of stuff worked over for them to sell...from some really nice old pieces that may have seen 3 or more layers of paint over solid Hond mahogany (we kept that one; it's in the living room here now at the farm :) ) to "primitives".

One did, indeed, find almost every conceivable problem plus "fix"...

[Sonny]

Yeah, echoing Robert's comments, similarly, I presently have a child's chai r to upholster. Once I removed some of the layers of fabric (previous uph olsterer(s) didn't remove previous fabrics), I've discovered broken parts a nd poor repairs. But I like repairing these sorts of projects, properly f ixing the chair to a much better condition. With these discoveries, I won der how a small chair, as this, became so damaged in the first place.

Some pics (scroll right for 2 more pics) of the broken (in many pieces) bac krest framing. Second pic shows plywood and a metal plate "repair". 3rd pic shows more of the ply repair. I haven't finished tearing the older fa brics off, so I may discover more issues. The front legs are, for sure, l oose.

/

As dpb alludes to, at first I thought some seller did these quick fixes, to sell the chair at a quick profit. I asked the owner if that was the case or is the chair a family hand-me-down. It's been in the family, so I want , more so, to fix it properly. I suppose previous fixes were family attem pts and understandable (not a put-down on their part!).

Sonny

[Leon]

Looks pretty old, I see some of those old timey screws in there. LOL Be sure and posts pictures of the end result.

[dpb]

On 05/09/2017 9:46 AM, Sonny wrote: ...

I almost always ended up putting far more time/effort into any of the pieces than they were worth monetarily simply 'cuz couldn't stand to not do whatever it was needed "right"...

The one agreement we had was that I did _NOT_ do the stripping/refinishing.... :)

She and in particular one other of her buddies were very good at recognizing what was underneath the present appearance...consequently, much of what they did bring home was the unappreciated for the shape it was in... :)

Almost everything was factory-built even if there were still some signs of a little bit of handwork here and there -- kinda' like what I'd guess is may the case of Leon's table here. OTOH, there was the occasional home-built piece, but none of them came across over the time were doing this were anything much beyond primitives--no budding Duncan Phyfe's in E TN then, apparently. :)

Lonnie Bird apparently sprang full-bloom (of course, he was still in Berea, KY, at that time, before the move to Knoxville area).

[Sonny]

That may have been a poor choice of words, in reference to what you contrib uted. My statement was toward this small chair, thinking, when I first sa w some of its issues, that the owner may have picked it up at some sale.

Yep, yep, yep! It's almost always more work than it's worth, especially ( most times) when my relatives ask me to do magic and expect minimum cost, i f any at all.

I like doing repairs as a hobby, so I often overlook costs to a customer, e specially return customers. I would normally charge 1) about $50-$75 to re pair this chair, 2) $75 is my fee for re-seating and re-tying springs onto

3) new jute webbing. Just removing old tacks and staples are time consumin g, as well. Usually, these old pieces are full of old dust and (soft mater ials) decay, and cleaning is another time consumer. I'll charge $50 for al l this work, more so to get the chair in good order. I learn from these so rts of repairs, so I accept this as a sort of payment, also.

Sonny

[dpb]

Oh, no, not to worry!!! ::)

I grok'ed the intent, just felt 'geezer time' comin' on. Actually, for the most part as you I enjoyed doing it and she actually made some pretty decent money for a part-time (mostly) hobby. They had their jollies in the hunting together, besides.