Here's a WIP of a restoration I did for a friend, who had a nice 19th C walnut carver chair, from his great-grandfather. I think it is Regency, or at least early Victorian. It has been patched and repaired many times, so people thought it worth hanging on to.
The front legs are held on with 1/2" dowels, one of which had broken at the dowel; the leg was intact. My friend, being a physicist, tried to repair it with a steel 1/4" rod and epoxy, but of course it is very hard to get a hole drilled square and coaxial in both parts. Also it's too big to get in my drill press, and there is very little to refer to for the correct angles, especially in the elaborately turned leg.
I first thought of applying heat to reverse the glued joint, no doubt made with hide glue. But the epoxy made this tricky, and heat would jeopardise the rather nice patina. So, after removing the steel and epoxy, I made a jig for each side of the break. Use of an expanding bit in a brace enabled me to match the radii of the leg and its mount, so that the jigs could be pushed and cramped on to register on the axis of the leg. This is the one for the base:
The other jig, on the right, is slightly more complicated, since it needs to be a push fit onto two different diameters of the leg:
The jig for the base before cramping up and drilling (the visible dowels were already in the scrap oak used):
The holes were then drilled, with a hand held electric drill.
Making a dowel to fit tightly in the drilled holes; I use beech, which was very likely used originally and is the strongest of the common woods (apart from rain, which was probably not available when the chair was made):
then finally gluing. I used Titebond liquid hide glue, my goto for restoration work as it is similar to the original, and reversible, and fills small gaps.
The leg alignment was checked by eye, as there aren't any reference square edges to work from and to! The leg was clamped "shut" lightly while the glue set.
The final result. The joint seems to be at least as strong as the other joints on the chair, and the finish was not marred.
The front legs are held on with 1/2" dowels, one of which had broken at the dowel; the leg was intact. My friend, being a physicist, tried to repair it with a steel 1/4" rod and epoxy, but of course it is very hard to get a hole drilled square and coaxial in both parts. Also it's too big to get in my drill press, and there is very little to refer to for the correct angles, especially in the elaborately turned leg.
I first thought of applying heat to reverse the glued joint, no doubt made with hide glue. But the epoxy made this tricky, and heat would jeopardise the rather nice patina. So, after removing the steel and epoxy, I made a jig for each side of the break. Use of an expanding bit in a brace enabled me to match the radii of the leg and its mount, so that the jigs could be pushed and cramped on to register on the axis of the leg. This is the one for the base:
The other jig, on the right, is slightly more complicated, since it needs to be a push fit onto two different diameters of the leg:
The jig for the base before cramping up and drilling (the visible dowels were already in the scrap oak used):
The holes were then drilled, with a hand held electric drill.
Making a dowel to fit tightly in the drilled holes; I use beech, which was very likely used originally and is the strongest of the common woods (apart from rain, which was probably not available when the chair was made):
then finally gluing. I used Titebond liquid hide glue, my goto for restoration work as it is similar to the original, and reversible, and fills small gaps.
The leg alignment was checked by eye, as there aren't any reference square edges to work from and to! The leg was clamped "shut" lightly while the glue set.
The final result. The joint seems to be at least as strong as the other joints on the chair, and the finish was not marred.
