my next rescue

[astrid]

Hi girls,
this is a picture of my next rescue mission
joints are stuffed
I am more of a re finisher than a wood worker
my problem here will be to try to keep as much of the upholstery base as possible and still repair the joints and broken frame properly.
astrid

[DJ’s Timber]

Once you have clicked "Managed Attachments", you then need to click the "Browse" button on the page that has opened and the select the picture from your computer that you want to show. Once you have done this, you then need to click "Upload" which will then transfer a copy of your picture to the Forum's server. And finally click "Submit Reply" on the first page.

Another thing to is that the pictures must be under 100kb or the forum won't accept them

[astrid]

here go's

[astrid]

thanks for help re pics.

any sugestions re my problem?
astrid:q

[watson]

I drink, so your pic seems fine to me.
That's a fine rescue project though!

[martrix]

thanks for help re pics.

any sugestions re my problem?
astrid:q

You need to take some close-up pics of the joints in question for that.

Use a tripod (stool, chair, anything you can hold the camera steady on) and use the macro setting on your camera if it wont auto-focus because you are too close...........confused yet?:D

[s_m]

Will be watching this thread with interest. I have an old oak dining suite in the garage (buried under other stuff) that belonged to LOML's grandmother I am going to restore (one day). All of the chairs are dowelled and need to be reglued.

I was planning to dismantle the chairs and extract the dowels, scrape the joint surfaces, maybe drill out the dowel holes a tad biggger then reassemble.

Most of mine all need reupholstering too. The seats are leather but in varying stages of disrepair. They are lift-out panels so pretty immaterial to the restoration because they can be done separately later retaining as much or as little of the original as required.

Steph

[Groggy]

thanks for help re pics.

any sugestions re my problem?
astrid:qYou mean "my problem here will be to try to keep as much of the upholstery base as possible and still repair the joints and broken frame properly."?

Sorry to say that we can't really tell until it is stripped down and the frame exposed. From what I can see in the pic, it would be best to reupholster completely. I'd take a bunch of pics from all sorts of angles to capture what it should look like, before stripping it.

[astrid]

Will be watching this thread with interest. I have an old oak dining suite in the garage (buried under other stuff) that belonged to LOML's grandmother I am going to restore (one day). All of the chairs are dowelled and need to be reglued.

I was planning to dismantle the chairs and extract the dowels, scrape the joint surfaces, maybe drill out the dowel holes a tad biggger then reassemble.

Most of mine all need reupholstering too. The seats are leather but in varying stages of disrepair. They are lift-out panels so pretty immaterial to the restoration because they can be done separately later retaining as much or as little of the original as required.

S-M

dont drill dowel holes bigger. this will make your joints looser.
just carefully tap old joints apart, and mark which dowel came out of which hole

clean old glue off dowels and out of holes( I find a sanding drum on a dremle or drill is good for this)
glue back together (measure the diagonals on the base of the legs or the chair might wobble)

clamp or use a spanish twist untill glue is dry

if you break a dowel

Steph

[astrid]

messed up post
astrid

[s_m]

Thanks Astrid - I was only going to drill out the dowel holes if I could get new dowels slightly larger. I figured this would give the glue a better bite during reassembly?

I'm a bit confused about what you said re your chair and the upholstery - it looks completely stuffed (scuse the pun :D) to me so wouldn't you be best off stripping everything down to the timber anyway?

Steph

[astrid]

normally I would strip out the lot
but the client dosent have a lot of dollars and to fully re upholster costs a lot
the back padding is the expensive bit and is separate from the front
likewise the arms.
so if I can get the seat out then take the thing apart leaving the back intact.
i can strip, re glue re polish and re assemble.
the client can cover back with calico, webb the seat and make a cushion like a deck chair
hence she gets her grandmas chair fixed and usable and can re upholser properly when she has the bucks

astrid

[Jim Carroll]

Probably best to tell the customer to come back when she can afford to do the job properly.

Why pull it apart once and only do half a job, then have to pull it apart again.

[astrid]

why would she have to pull it apart again?
as i said the back pad is independant of the front and sides.
take the front and sides off and repair peices independantly
i know that its difficult to see from the photo but I think it can be done
i'll have a better idea when all the outer cover is off

astrid

[astrid]

OK,
Ive stripped off all the upholstery except the back and arms.
all joints buggered under the covering, frame held together with bits of old timber and nails( lots of these) all supporting frame borer ridden.

separated the back from the seat and took it to a good upholsterer for advice.
he said can be saved by re webbing the back and tacking on calico to hold in loose coconut fibres.
to re upholster this chair would cost in excess of $500 plus fabric.
thats fully sprung, rolled edges button back

so, Ive pulled it completly to pieces, saved old hand made dowels where their not broken .
put smaller bits in a meths bath and let them strip themselves while i cleaned out old tacks

Next step will be to take each piece and drill out broken dowel, repair any cracks so each piece is ready for assembly.

this seems like a lot of work, but the chair is made of honduran mahogany and once the black shellac stuff is off the timber is magnificent.

will post more pictures soon, all I've got at the moment is a pile of pieces.

astrid:)

[flynnsart]

It would be interesting to see a pic of all the pieces laid out.

Donna

[astrid]

is not here,
Ill see if I can get my 14yo to do pics
Im a techno trog
astrid:)

[s_m]

What are you going to do about the bits that have borer?

Steph

[astrid]

the only pieces with borer were the corner blocks in the seat and a rail to attach fabric.
these are easily recut
the main frame is south american mahogany, not a exit hole to be found.:U

astrid
PS see my wonderfully innovative idea for stripping shellac on the finishers forum (totaly modest here but I'm rather pleased with myself)
:B

[ptc]

very interesting.
lurking hope you do not mind.

[astrid]

OK
all pieces have been stripped. old glue sanded off and broken dowel drilled out
next step assembly.
will post pics

to s-m
dont drill or remove old dowels unless their broken, that is unless your confident to drill the angle exactly the same as the old one

Ive done this once and had a hell of a job putting it back together
if you sand the old glu off the old dowel and clean out the holes the new glue will be fine

astrid:)

[bpj1968]

I think you have to make sure you use the same glue, I believe that hide glue needs to be restuck with hide glue for a strong bond (Could be wrong though)

[astrid]

nah
if you get the old glue off to show bare timber, its ok
i use a tiny sanding drum on my dremmel can get down the old holes with it and in between old dowel posts
ive done this on hundreds of joints and not had a complaint and with repete customers several years later.

astrid

[astrid]

some pics (i Hope) of next stage
astrid,

Yay it worked .
now dont worry about the white bits, the camera makes them worse than they are, they will dissapear after a light sand and shellac.
next step remove old glue and drill out broken dowel.
re dowel, glue and clamp.
Ill probably put a couple of coats of shellac on befor I re assemble, this makes final polish easier.
dont get it where you want the glue to go!

[prozac]

Hi Astrid. I would love to see some progress photos as you finish the pieces with a simple explanation of your methods or products used.

Can't wait to see a finished photo.

prozac

[Hickory]

Forstner bits.... use Forstner bits to clean out dowel hole... They will trace well into the existing dowel hole. When there is a spindle with a broken tendon the use the forstner bit to drill ot the end and isert a short dowl to make a new tendon end to the spindle. (I did that, just, today)

Finest tool for recovering damaged pieces is often a Forestner bit. :2tsup:

I work with joint after joint, one at a time and use Polyurathane glue to re assemble because of the loose joints and the swelling of the poly fills the loose joints.

[astrid]

The advantage to using a sanding drum on the dremmle is that you can clean the old glue off the flat surfaces and then whip it down the hole, can clean all the holes and surfaces in about an hour. and trim any small splintery bits at the same time.
most old glues are pretty brittle and as long as the dremmle isnt turnd up too high it sands without melting the glue.
I love my dremmle.
main problem at the moment is the dowels were hand made and not round also there wern't put in straight so drilling them out is a bit tricky.
this project is going to take a few weeks, busy with christmas stuff

astrid:)