I dropped by to see my Mother today. I am lucky enough to be able to do that. Mom lives in apartment in my sister's back yard.
When I pulled up a char to visit with her, I noticed an old fix that my Grandpa used to put on chairs when they started to get loose. Mom and Dad bought these chairs ... oh... 65 years ago. I was a kid, and they sat in the dining room and helped raise a huge family. I have six siblings.
When a chair started to get loose from decades of us, we'd take it to Granpa's and he would tighten it up. He'd install small metal rods under the rungs of the chair, then cut threads on the rods and install a small nut.
I thought you folks needed to see that.
4 comments:
Your Grandfather was a clever man. Thanks for the DIY handyman tip !
I have my grandfather's rocking chair with that type of fix. It's a 1/4" carriage bolt with threads brazed on to the end.
Smart fix, and handy... Of course back then they 'fixed' stuff rather than throwing it away and buying new.
A cross pin in the dowel end of the spline, made from a cut down finishing nail, will work too, and can be made invisible by a drop of glue and some sawdust in the end of the hole. Tighten everything up first with a rubber mallet and a rope tourniquet, then drill and pin.
If the old glue is loose on one it’s probably loose on all, so you do all the spindles. If the chair is actually falling apart you take it apart and reglue everything, then use the tourniquet (band clamp) to keep it tight while the glue dries. In a day or two you then pin everything.
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