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Hi all,
I tried repairing a chair that the movers messed up, and installed dowels into holes that were ever-so-slightly too large for them. Need to be more careful with that electric drill. So, anyhow, I used tight-bond 2 to glue the dowels into place, but some of the joints came apart again.
Should I have used a different glue? Maybe tight-bond does not work well on dowels that are just a little bit loose.
Thanks,
Mark
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For chair repair I'll use epoxy mixed a little with sawdust. I have a container of walnut sawdust extracted from a sander's bag from many years ago. It doesn't take much. You don't want it quite as thick as peanut butter but close. Obviously, clean all loose fibers and old glue first. Used the epoxy and dust mixture to put the rockers back on a 130± year old rocking chair just last week.
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Last chair I did, used clear gorrilla glue, it doesn't foam. AFAK, the chair is still tight.
Ed
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What Bob said, the epoxy is gap filling.
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
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LOML went through a phase of chair rescues that put me in tough spots to get them back together and solid. For this situation, I added thickness to the tenon using paper-thin pieces of wood (perhaps plane shavings) that were glued to the tenon with Titebond. Then I fitted the tenon into the mortise using sand paper.
I have used both TB and epoxy as the final adhesive. Haven't had any failures.
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PVA glue is not gap-filling, so that's your problem. In other words, it provides no structural value when there's a gap in the joint. You could mix sawdust in with the glue, which might help, but the real solution is epoxy. If the joint isn't visible, you don't have to mix any sawdust or color into the epoxy. Another solution is a glue called Chair Doctor. It comes in a kit with a syringe, where you can inject the glue into the joint. The glue expands into the loose joint, solving the wobbly joint issue. Whatever you do, don't use super glue (cyanoacrylate). CA is a horrible gap filler.
https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/too...octor-glue
Still Learning,
Allan Hill
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(03-29-2020, 11:11 PM)EdL Wrote: Last chair I did, used clear gorrilla glue, it doesn't foam. AFAK, the chair is still tight.
Ed
I too used Gorilla glue for loose dowels on furniture that was also damaged by the movers. It filled the gaps well.
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Epoxy is the only glue I'm aware of that fills gaps w/o losing strength. It also doesn't need nor really want much clamping pressure to create a high strength bond. Dowels often don't fill the holes well in joints being repaired and then you have trouble clamping the joint tightly, too. Double trouble for anything besides ...... yes, epoxy.
John
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(03-30-2020, 09:38 AM)jteneyck Wrote: Epoxy is the only glue I'm aware of that fills gaps w/o losing strength. It also doesn't need nor really want much clamping pressure to create a high strength bond. Dowels often don't fill the holes well in joints being repaired and then you have trouble clamping the joint tightly, too. Double trouble for anything besides ...... yes, epoxy.
John
If you have a lathe, make a dowel to fit your hole, problem solved.
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(03-30-2020, 10:52 AM)Chuck 80 Wrote: If you have a lathe, make a dowel to fit your hole, problem solved.
That would be fine if the hole were straight and consistent but dowel holes in parts that need to be repaired often are neither. Sometimes you can bore them larger and use a larger dowel, other times you can't. As long as you can get to clean wood epoxy doesn't care whether the dowel fits well in the hole.
White vinegar removes epoxy squeeze out beautifully. Once I learned that I had a whole new outlook on the stuff. I just repaired a chair yesterday where an unreinforced joint split along the glue line. As I glued it back together with epoxy the squeeze wiped right off w/o damaging the finish. The joint was impossible to clamp in any conventional way, but I managed to keep it snug using stretch wrap film while the glue set.
John
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