Trainwreck Chair Fix

[Lawrence L'Hote]

A lady friend brought over a chair for me to look at. The chair was dusty, had a missing back spindle, the seat was broken in three pieces and the tenon was broken off one of the side rungs. I rebuilt the tenon, glued the seat back together(as best I could under the circumstances) with added dutchmen on the bottom and, using that shaving horse I showed here 2 weeks ago, made a new spindle. I thought I would post a few pix before I put a finish on the spindle.

back appears distorted but that is due to a poor photo take. Notice the upscale photo drop????

And a closer up.

circular carving on the new spindle looks a little high but that's easily adjusted....the back isn't glued up yet.

I'll post some pix of the tenon fix and the seat reconstruction within a week as soon as I get the finish on the spindle. The woman does not want to strip off the old finish but wishes to leave it more-or-less as it is...with all the dents, scratches and 'interesting' features of an old, used chair. Ordinarily, I don't do work for other people but this will be the one exception.

Larry

[gpdewitt]

Looks like you have a good start on it, Larry. I'll be interested to see your progress, especially how you go about matching the old finish. Are you going to "distress" the new spindle?

[Lawrence L'Hote]

The 3 remaining spindles show little 'distress' just some differences in shading. At the moment the back is ready to be glued up. Finishing/staining the new spindle to match the old caused me a little concern but I used several other dowels of the same wood to get a match of the original finish. You can imagine there are umteen dozen shades from very dark brown to light brownish red on that chair and wear places that add character. I used a mixture of water soluble dyes...a brown and an antique cherry. Then sealed with shellac followed with a glaze of antique cherry gel and burnt umber pigment and then rubbed a bit. Goooood match. I may dab a little of that glaze on the old spindles to bring them a little closer to the new one. I'll cook up a batch of hot hide glue tomorrow and glue up the back.. Early this coming week, I'm planning to get some better quality pix of the finished chair and details of the other two things the chair needed.

Larry

[Wilson Lamb]

[Lawrence L'Hote]

Could be...or something. ;-) I've contacted the lady to pick up her chair. Following is a little bloviation about the process of fixing it. It will be tough letting it go.

[Tim Douglass]

frequently around my world, but I've not done such careful jobs of most of them. I really like the way you fixed the broken tenon, I'm going to file that idea away for the next time I need to fix one.

-- "We need to make a sacrifice to the gods, find me a young virgin... oh, and bring something to kill"

Tim Douglass

[Lawrence L'Hote]

In the beginning of the restore that problem with the broken tenon caused me the most concern, however as it turned out it was easily fixed. I thought about drilling the rung for a dowel but decided the drilling process just might damage the rung even more. To cut the slot in the rung you must secure the rung to a flat piece of scrap so that it doesn't rotate when cut. I cut a 90 deg groove in the scrap much like what you would do to drill a piece of round stock. Then I carved out an indention so that the larger diameter part of the rung could set into the scrap. A small hose clamp was then used to secure the rung to the scrap piece. I could post a picture of the scrap piece if you need it.

Larry

[Lowell Holmes]

I tried to open the jpg's, but couldn't get there. Is there a problem with the links shown? :-)

[Lawrence L'Hote]

Someone else over on a.b.p.w brought this to my attention. Apparently, my ISP, Mediacom, is having some problems. I can't get any of my sites, the Mediacom Online website or my e-mail...curious, however, I CAN get newsgroups. Mediacom seems to have a 'problem' once or twice a year.. I only put up with Mediacom because I get 60 meg webspace with my digital/internet connection.

Larry

[Lowell Holmes]

[Tim Douglass]

Sounds like a pretty straightforward jig. I had imagined a box with various wedges and a clamp or two. I currently have an old piano stool (with the screw top) that needs a rung repaired, so I may give that approach a try rather than just turning a new rung - which was my original thought.

-- "We need to make a sacrifice to the gods, find me a young virgin... oh, and bring something to kill"

Tim Douglass

[Lowell Holmes]

[Lawrence L'Hote]

Well now....she's taking me out to din-din at the diner this Wednesday for fixing her chair...FWIW

Larry