Thread: Reinforcing parrot perch

Go to a hardware shop and buy a hose-clamp of the appropriate diameter and fasten it around the cracked dowel.

I tried attaching a hope clamp, but the dowel still leans to one side.

My method would be to counterbore the board so that the dowel is snuggly located in a hole. If the board is too thin, then double the thickness where the dowel goes by adding a smaller piece of board or a collar. The key though is to make the hole only just big enough for a snug fit around the dowel.

The biggest improvement though would be not using a woodscrew into endgrain of the dowel (weak joint and splits easily as you’ve found) but to bore the hole to take a threaded insert and use a machine screw/ bolt. These are cheaply available from Bunnies.

"but to bore the hole to take a threaded insert and use a machine screw/ bolt."
The person that put this together may have already done that, but I'm not sure how far up into the dowel the screws went (yes, two of them). It looks like he's drilled the hell out of the screws, both the uh groove/knotches in the head of the screws are worn out, and they're dug deep into the wooden base. And... I'm not sure how to get them out.
The bird landing on it and taking off would have also weakened it over time too.

Hmm. I'm going to try getting some brackets and screws tomorrow. To see how hard my idea fails.

theres always going to be trouble repairing something like this, esp when Cocky has his share in the works.

For the time, frustration and money just go buy a new one, maybe even go and find a tree branch (thick one)

The existing dowel is split, this means you will need to replace that part to fix this, or at least vut away the split part (if it leaves it long enough)

Chief Tiff has the best suggestion, laminate two boards together, countersinking the new dowel into the existing board (you will bore out the existing screw holes to make them just big enough to accept the dowel). Then glue and screw the dowel into the second piece using a machine screw and bolt.

Originally Posted by Midnight Man

The existing dowel is split, this means you will need to replace that part to fix this, or at least vut away the split part (if it leaves it long enough) Chief Tiff has the best suggestion, laminate two boards together, countersinking the new dowel into the existing board (you will bore out the existing screw holes to make them just big enough to accept the dowel). Then glue and screw the dowel into the second piece using a machine screw and bolt.

I thought he was talking about drilling a hole into the end of the dowel, so that when the screw goes in it doesn't split. That's not what he was saying? And, he was talking about lamination? Isn't that what you do to business cards? Two wooden boards?

Sorry for the confusion.

You would use two boards if the one you have now is thin - if it's thick enough, then simply bore a hole into it part way through to match the size of your dowel. If the board is thin, then laminate two together - laminating in this case means taking two boards, and putting them flat against each other, as if they were pages in a book. On one of them, you would drill a hole of the same size as your dowel, so when you put the dowel in that hole, it sits on the second board. This will give the joint some strength.

Screwing into end grain doesn't lead to a strong joint as you have found out.

The way around this is to get something like this: https://www.scrooz.com.au/m10-x-150m...grab-pack-of-5 (you might want, and need to search for a longer one) and drill a hole through the centre of your dowel, then bolt together with the nut at the end of your dowel.

del

Ah, right. I see what you mean now. Thanks.

So, round peg in a round hole, where the hole acts as a kind of collar to hold the peg in place. And you don't attach the peg to the board, but the hole instead, thereby avoiding splitting the dowel.

I could probably be able to pull that off, except that I would need to do some kind of dowel surgery to get the screw out. The head of the screws have been worn down to nothing. Perhaps some sort of magnetised drill bit?

I did try the 4 L brackets and a hose clamp last night, to see how hard it would fail. And... It does look a little bit silly, as it's not really what brackets are for (I think). But... For $3.55 it works surprisingly well. The wobble is all but eliminated, maybe 1 or 2 mm at most. If I can excise the dowel I might even be able to a bore a hole into the board (to try Cheif Tiff's idea) but keep the existing janky brackets.