How To Repair Cracked Wooden Chair Seat

Posted May 26, 2022

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One of the most exciting (and frightening) aspects of building a Windsor-style chair is the ever-present possibility that you will divide the seat when you drive the legs habitation.

I ever tell students: Continue hitting the leg'south tenon into its mortise until the very next strike will dissever the seat. Then finish.

This is not e'er possible. Today, I split a seat twice. Both splits occurred in mortises for the front end legs. That's typical. And information technology's an easier ready than the dorsum legs (more than on that sort of repair at the end of the entry).

When you lot split your seat, immediately remove the tenon from the mortise. The mucilage can still set up and make things worse. If your seat didn't completely carve up into pieces, y'all are going to have to figure out a style to open up the divide (gently) and then yous can get glue in at that place.

Luckily, yous are belongings a fantastic lever in your hands: the chair's leg.

Insert the leg'due south tenon about halfway into the mortise and lever it toward the centerline of the seat. The crack should open up nicely. Do this a couple times then y'all can get a experience for how much leverage you need to open up the carve up almost 1/viii".

Now prepare the glue. You tin employ yellow glue or liquid hide for this operation. I used yellow glue considering I was about out of liquid hide and wanted to apply the hide gum for the joints (not for the splits).

Thin the glue with h2o until information technology is the consistency of a sparse varnish or lacquer. It should stick to a popsicle stick and run off in a thin stream when yous pull the stick out of the mucilage.

Thinning the glue will slow its curing time and get in easier to wick into the splits. Thinning the glue tin also weaken it a flake, so you want to be certain to get as much as possible into the split up.

Open up the split by levering the mortise with the leg. Pour the glue over the split and work the leg. The glue should wick into the split. Use your finger to redirect any excess over the split and lever again. Later a few cycles of this, yous will see the glue start to come out everywhere along the split when you shut the divide. That's good.

For a long split, you might have to pour glue over it in a few locations. I had to put information technology on the finish grain at the front of my seat and on the long grain on the top surface. This is not a time to skimp on glue.

After you wick the glue into the split, clamp up the seat across the split. With a D-shaped seat (as shown), this is like shooting fish in a barrel. If you split the rear legs or your seat is shield-shaped, try using a ring clamp around the seat to close the split. And so add some pressure across the grain anywhere you lot can get a clamp to concord.

With the seat clamped upwardly, reassemble the chair. Re-employ hibernate glue. Drive the legs. Wedge the tenons. Because you lot have diluted mucilage spread everywhere, scrub the entire seat and legs. Leave the clamps on overnight.

Finally, cross your fingers that the glue got everywhere that it needed to go.

— Christopher Schwarz

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