Fixing Old Wooden Chairs

I've somehow been tasked with fixing about a dozen wobbly old wooden chairs from the local Cranky Womens Association hall. The joints are all loose & some are missing one of the gussets between the seat & back uprights. It looks like they are just dowel joints, so I'll try to pull them all apart & redo them.
What I wnt to know is how can I easily make the replacement gussets, as the existing ones look like they're made with bent laminations. As I don't want to have to build a former & steamer to steam bend & glue laminations, would cutting them from boards, with the grain at 45* to the flat faces be strong enough?
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Are you sure those gussets are original? They look like an after thought to me, probably put in place to compensate for wobbly joints. I can't imagine that they add that much strength to the joint.

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Originally Posted by markharrison

Are you sure those gussets are original? They look like an after thought to me, probably put in place to compensate for wobbly joints. I can't imagine that they add that much strength to the joint.

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What he said
They look like a quick dirty fix, that didn’t work !!

Cheers Matt,

...and no, cutting 'em with the grain at 45deg won't have the same strength. Too many short shear lines.

Thanks guys. They look to be original, all dozen or so chairs have them. As they look to be laminated, it wouldn't have been a quick fix, a lot of work has gone into making & shaping them to fit. Considering the amount of work required, I might suggest they just buy some new chairs.

You could also try using https://www.timbecon.com.au/chair-doctor-glue as a quick fix that may actually work.

You do see gussets like those used in chairs . Specially on Beech bentwood chairs . Every other part of a bentwood is steam bent and a couple of bent gussets for strength was the norm .

They do look like an added idea someone has come up with on that chair for sure.
You have a normal sawn wood constructed factory chair and all of a sudden there is two steam bent bits added which are in the way , different colour and no other part of the chair is made that way .

I had the same problem with a bentwood missing the same corner gusset .The fastest way I could come up with for a replacement was to go looking for a bent dry branch off a tree . If not a dry one then a wet one and let it dry after shaping . The customer wasn't wanting to pay me to make a one off by steam bending . Once I pointed out all the repair options and how long each would take for the whole chair the lady didn't want to go ahead with any . She gave up on it .

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Originally Posted by 62woollybugger

Thanks guys. They look to be original, all dozen or so chairs have them. As they look to be laminated, it wouldn't have been a quick fix, a lot of work has gone into making & shaping them to fit. Considering the amount of work required, I might suggest they just buy some new chairs.

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Yeah, fair enough. The only value they have is the utility value of keeping bums off of the floor; or firewood. Given that they're are useless to sit on, they're more valuable as firewood...