I did repairs for a large middle-man furniture for over 20 years. This method works well but leaves too much color work after the glue sets. I made a jig to bore a slightly oversized hole (the depth of the holes depended on how far the bad grain extends) on both broken pieces. I sometimes had to use 12" bits to get the depth I needed. I would use a 1/2" bit for a 7/16" dowel, 5/8" bit for a 9/16" dowel, etc. I would cut my dowel to the needed length and insert it into the break with enough epoxy to fill the hole and clamp it together. The squeeze-out glued the broken area. After it set, a little clean-up, a little wood marker of the appropriate color ,and a generous application of spray lacquer finished the job. Great video. Keep up your fine work.
@@mercedesjerseygirl6100 the glue will hold the leg back together but it will most likely break again at the areas in the wood right next to the glue. That’s why he then proceeded to add reinforcement which gets a good grip into both sides of the leg from the break.
A very nice repair young man, a well thought out repair, there’s good money In furniture repair. That spline you made was ideal. I’m glad you realized, that a face to face gluing was not enough. You should look into finishing products like clear spray lacquer , toners, ground pigment, and how to use padding lacquer. You would never be without work.
500$ in my country is a full paycheck... And to give all that money for one chair, lol... 6 years ago we bought very good and comfortable chairs for 50€ each... Never broke...
Half of $500 is FREE?? Nice repair, reminds me of a few Gibson headstock repairs I've done.. Adding the spline makes the repair 10X stronger.. Way to go!! Most repairs are FREE for friends & family.. Hell it gave you something to do anyhow. And I know it takes longer to film & edit these videos than to do the work.. ROCK ON! Gary/Hk
In the past, I've passed up on furniture, even when it was free. After watching this video, I may have to re-evaluate my thinking when given the next offer.
watching more and more of your videos, and seeing constant reference to grain patterns it would be awesome if you did a full on video on grain, and strength. a fun strength test video like how you played around with the box joints and dovetails with the car jack.
Well, you fixed it good. I'm surprised that the manufacturer didn't foresee the grain direction problem. One thing is for sure, the chair will not break at that point again.
Very interesting fix I'll keep that in mind if my wooden chairs break, before this I would of just glued it then drill some holes and countersink wood screws in it, then try to cover up the abomination, fail and give it to goodwill haha
Wenns am falschen Grain liegen würde, hätt er nicht so brechen dürfen! Das liegt wohl eher am lumpigen Holz , das wo überhaupt kein Grain nicht hat. Und deshalb haben Sie es richtig gemacht mit einem nachträglich eingefügten Grain.
Is it stronger to put the inserts on the sides of the legs where it will push and pull instead of one the sides where the insert would "bend" pushing against the sides of the slots? when leaning
Hi Mathias, I've been following your site for quite some time now and I really enjoy when you build some incredible contraptions like marble machines and other (although most of your work has practical appliances). When I saw this movie Amazing Flexible Wooden Bowl I instantly thought that it is something you might enjoy building, using some fancy wood perhaps.
One question left - how strong is fixed leg? Can you please make two tests with your bath scale and car jack? We know you can fix broken chair legs nicely :)
After the first 1:00, I thought this was going to be a *FAIL!* video. I never would have believed that this fix would work, even with the spline. No leaning back on two legs in this chair!!
$500 EACH? Come on, Rick... maybe $500 for the SET, eh? Nice repair if the appearance is not that important. Best would have been to create, essentially, a loose tenon joint in the break. I've done dozens of this exact kind of repair. It takes practice, and aligning the mortises can be a challenge, but you can make an almost invisible job of it if done right.
Wow, that is really awesome. I agree that this is probably the best way to go with the repair, but couldn't be possible (and probably enough) to just insert one or two dowels perpendicular to the glue line? I'm asking just in case I come across a similar problem (and I don't own a router yet) :)
The dowel couldn't go very deep that way and you'd just move the problem up or down a few centimeters. And mechanically the center of a post is not strained at all when bending while the opposite outsides or compressed and strained. So a single dowel would not take much of the load.
Shannariano: Essentially, you are correct. I've done lots of these repairs, and the important thing is to make the mortise deep enough to get past the area of the most bending load when weight is applied at an angle. It is not an easy repair to proper align, but careful measuring and patience will help you get it right. I can guarantee you that one of two things happened here... either the chair was dropped on the foot of that leg with force, or someone of significant mass leaned back on the rear legs. This kind of a break almost never happens under proper use, even when the grain runs in the 'wrong direction,' unless there is some other defect in the wood. And now we finally see an example of why our mothers yelled at us for leaning back on our chairs...
I don't know his reasoning, but I could see getting the holes exactly right could be tough. On the other hand, i could also see him building a cool and complicated machine to do it perfectly
It isn't. But it's not an end grain joint, it's a side grain joint because the grain is all in the wrong direction. Which is why the reinforcement is needed.
Hey Matthias i have heard you mention that you have had to make trips to Canadian tire which means you live in canada as do I but where in canada do you live
