In April we held our semiannual event at the shop where we invite residents to bring their wobbly chairs, broken tables, and sticky dresser drawers to the Ask the Woodchucks repair day. We hold this event in April and October to help our neighbors. As usual most of the problems were wobbly and broken chairs. We are always amazed at the previous repairs that never seem to fix the problem, or maybe we only see the unsuccessful ones. An over sized nail pounded through the leg into the end grain of the stretcher never works. Squirting glue all around the outside of a loose joint only makes the subsequent repair more difficult.
After some discussion about how to proceed, we usually remove the legs and stretchers from the chair. We then usually spend considerable time removing unsuccessful repairs and cleaning the tenons and the mortises. Occasionally we have to make new stretchers. The next step is to dry fit the chair back together to make sure everything fits and that all four legs reach the ground.
We are now ready to glue the chair back together. We use either yellow carpenter’s glue or, in some cases, Gorilla Glue. Clamps are then added to make sure the joints are fully engaged and they don’t move while the glue dries. We usually also clamp chairs and tables to the workbench, legs down, while the glue dries to make sure they don’t rock.
In past years residents have brought in boxes filled with parts that we have to reassemble into a piece of furniture. We always ask what it is supposed to be so that we don’t assemble the pieces of a chest into a table.
One thing we can’t do in the shop is to apply stain or finish to a piece of furniture. This applies not only to resident’s furniture brought to Ask the Woodchucks, but to furniture built in the shop by members. This is a rule we made 12 years ago to prevent messy spills and to eliminate the fire danger of flammable oil based finishes. When a repair disturbs the finish or when a new part has to be made we explain to the resident how to stain and add finish to the affected area.
If you have suggestions for future tips or have questions about maintenance around your home submit them to ask.the.woodchucks@gmail.com.
