Chair Tightening

 

Over a period of time a chairs glued joints can deteriorate causing the chair to wobble, creek or even fall apart. This can be caused by a number of things - time, frequency of usage, rocking  back in them, how well they were originally made or a whole list of other possibilities. This can be repaired and last for many, many years to come if done properly. An ideal wood joint is made when raw, dry wood grain is glued, clamped and allowed to dry under pressure such as when the chair was originally constructed.  Unfortunately for us, in the case of an old, loose chair, the grain is now full of old, brittle, deteriorated glue - not good. These joint needs to be cleaned out as much as possible and re-glued. Even with the most through efforts however, the joint will never last as long as it did originally. That being said, it will most likely not be something that you will ever  have to worry about again.

At the Woodworks we will totally dismantle the chair - clean the joints, re-glue and clamp them. In most cases, however - the entire chair may not need to come apart. If a joint is still holding  and is not  loose, you will do more damage then good trying to get it apart. Each chair is priced according to how much of the chair has to be disassembled.

Below is an example of the process -

 

                    

 

 

1) This chair was brought in to be tightened -

 

 

 

 

                                                   

                                                  2) It was then disassembled - all but 3 dowels

 

 

3) The joints were then cleaned and new glue applied -

 

4) The chair was reassembled and clamped tight -

 

5) After the glue has dried, the chair is then unclamped and touched up  - ready to go!

 

 

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