Repairing/filling wooden feet on a coffee table

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum so please bear with me if this is a confused question or I've filed it in the wrong category! I'm restoring a coffee table (or it may be a piano stool?), and I'm not sure what to do with the feet. The problem is that 3 of them are quite decayed, with the wood worn away and creviced. It makes the table quite wobbly, and may increase the damage to the feet over time.

The rest of the piece is in excellent condition. It is solid hardwood - possibly cedar? I sanded off the previous layers of varnish and stain - which was flaking and patchy - and have applied 4 coats of Scandinavian oil. I was planning to add one final coat of Ubeaut wax and then polish.

But I still need to fix the feet. I'm just not sure what kind of product to use to fill the gaps and restore the strength. I'm giving the piece to friends to use as a piano stool for their two little girls to sit side-by-side, so it will need some stability in the feet. Whatever filler product I use will need to be quite hard, I think, but not enough to split open the wood around it, as that is unfortunately quite soft. I suspect the piece might have been sitting on a damp floor at some point, so the feet were possibly damaged by water.

The ideas I've had are builder's bog or an epoxy resin? I'd really appreciate any thoughts on these options or other suggestions. I've attached some photos so you can see the condition of the damaged feet, as opposed to the good one.

Many thanks,
Katie

I feel like resin is the obvious choice... you could always dye it brown and/or paint over it at the end so it matches the colour of the wood. The way I'd approach this is to set up a fence around each leg with masking tape, fill with enough resin to more than cover the area and depth you need, and once dry - sand them back so they are level, and are shaped to match the original contour of the legs.

Alternatively I imagine you could just sand them back a centimetre or two and try to round them to the original shape but you might lose a bit of a the look if you take off too much. Plus if the wood is in poor condition this won't prevent it from reoccurring.

Probably not a bad idea at the end of whatever you do to put some adhesive felt under each leg too which would not just protect floors, but help prevent floors from damaging the chair legs further.

Many thanks for this advice. Very reassured to hear that you think resin is ok. I've never used resin as a filler in wood before - not on a load bearing piece, anyway, so I wanted to check that I wasn't about to do something silly.

I hadn't thought of dying the resin brown, but I could easily do that. The resin I have at home is EPOXYGLASS CLEAR EPOXY RESIN. I could easily go by Barnes and get some brown dye to mix in with it.

I'll get some felt too. Can you just glue the felt on, or can you buy some with an adhesive backing? Previously I've bought those felt pads you attach with a central nail, but I'm not keen to do that as it would create another hole in the wood.

I don't imagine you'll have very much in the way of resin there - it'll just be kind of like a cm at most and it should bond pretty well to the wood especially where it's rough and cracked. You could try adding some fibre to it (even some sawdust might help strengthen it??) or even glue or screw a piece of wood onto the bottom of the leg and then add resin around it...? You can just get adhesive backed felt from Bunnings (or even Kmart probably has it).

Personally I would cut away the decayed timber and glue new pieces in place then shape a stain

Saw this recently, might help

https://youtu.be/oY6JMxYrAoQ

Rick

They don't look to bad Katie . If they dont crumble when poked with a screw driver their good .
Sure, you could fill it a little . I use something like builders bog but its a lot better . Its Sellys Plasti Bond . And yes, colour it with oxide colours.

There are some other options though .
First is I can see the mark in the middle of the legs where they were held in the copier that made them . The X can be seen from the marking out for the centre.
Out from the middle is three prong marks from the steel domes that you see fitted to these tables . Yours once had them . I would be fitting those back on . They raise it 4 or 5 mm and are very hard wearing .

If you don't go back to steel you can get hard plastic ones . And if none of those suit the floor where it will be used then Felt pads. They will hide the lot and give it a soft touch on the floor that slides well .

These later options will wear better than any filler .

Rob

This is what was on the ends.

https://www.allglides.com/3-prong-sl...oden-legs.html

Oh! You're absolutely right. I hadn't realised there were caps, though I did notice the indents in the wood. This is immensely useful - thank you. I'll definitely get some for the next chairs or stools I make or restore.

Thanks so much for these insights and advice, Rob. I see what you mean about the metal caps - I will be buying a bunch of those. Thanks for the tip on Sellys Plastibond too. Looks a lot better (stronger) than the old bog I've used in the past.

Well, I've finished - and it looks pretty great! Because I was on the clock (I needed to give the table to my friend last Friday), I went ahead and used resin on the feet - as I hadn't seen the posts about capped feet at that stage. But next time I'll try using Selly's Plastibond and then put metal caps on, as they look terrific.

The end result with the resin was very satisfactory. I used masking tape to shape and encase the ends, then poured in the Epoxy Glass Coat. Let it cure for 24 hours, removed the tape. Left for another 24 hours then sanded down till they were equivalent height (no wobbling). My friends will be using the stool in a carpeted room anyway. I've advised them to give it a week or two before using.

Photos show the progression of the resin: after pouring, after sanding, then the whole table.

Really appreciate everyone's help and advice on this project!

Great work - turned out really well!

well I'd bet your a happy little vegemite with those great results.