Hi y'all, first time posting here. And I am glad to BE here.
I was asked to repair and restore an ole child's rocking chair. The
seat is cracked it a number of places and was repaired (badly I might
say). The splits have glue coming from them and I am afraid the wood
will split if I try to pry them open.
Can anyone guide me as to how or what to use to soften this old glue so
that I might remove it and repair with minimal damage?
Again very happy to be a part of this group.
Mike
In article <[email protected]>,
pookie03 <[email protected]> wrote:
> Can anyone guide me as to how or what to use to soften this old glue so
> that I might remove it and repair with minimal damage?
Use a heat gun (but be careful not to scorch the wood). The odds are
good the glue will soften enough for you to deal with it.
djb
--
~ Stay Calm... Be Brave... Wait for the Signs ~
------------------------------------------------------
One site: <http://www.balderstone.ca>
The other site, with ww links<http://www.woodenwabbits.com>
> pookie03 wrote:
> >
> > Can anyone guide me as to how or what to use to soften this old glue
> > so that I might remove it and repair with minimal damage?
> >
Heat the glued areas with a hair drier. It may take 5 to 10 minutes,
maybe more, to soften the glue. If you have a heat gun and you are
very careful not to burn the wood, use the heat gun, but be very
careful. I mentioned the hair drier first, to heat it slowly, because
many times folks aren't aware of what a heat gun will do to wood.
> pookie03 wrote:
> >
> > Can anyone guide me as to how or what to use to soften this old glue
> > so that I might remove it and repair with minimal damage?
> >
Heat the glued areas with a hair drier. It may take 5 to 10 minutes,
maybe more, to soften the glue. If you have a heat gun and you are
very careful not to burn the wood, use the heat gun, but be very
careful. I mentioned the hair drier first, to heat it slowly, because
many times folks aren't aware of what a heat gun will do to wood.
> pookie03 wrote:
> >
> > Can anyone guide me as to how or what to use to soften this old glue
> > so that I might remove it and repair with minimal damage?
> >
Heat the glued areas with a hair drier. It may take 5 to 10 minutes,
maybe more, to soften the glue. If you have a heat gun and you are
very careful not to burn the wood, use the heat gun, but be very
careful. I mentioned the hair drier first, to heat it slowly, because
many times folks aren't aware of what a heat gun will do to wood.
> pookie03 wrote:
> >
> > Can anyone guide me as to how or what to use to soften this old glue
> > so that I might remove it and repair with minimal damage?
> >
Heat the glued areas with a hair drier. It may take 5 to 10 minutes,
maybe more, to soften the glue. If you have a heat gun and you are
very careful not to burn the wood, use the heat gun, but be very
careful. I mentioned the hair drier first, to heat it slowly, because
many times folks aren't aware of what a heat gun will do to wood.
Splits in composite glued up boards are very common. The joints are
glued before the wood is stabilized [green or wet], and as the wood
dries it shrinks and applies powerful force on the joint, pulling it
apart.
You can assume that the wood is now a lot more stable and a proper
repair can be made.
I like to use a thin kerf saw to saw the offending joint out and
re-joint it before gluing. This results in the loss of a little width
[the saw kerf], but is acceptable for many repairs. If the wood loss is
critical you can glue in a thin compensating strip, usually called a
'Dutchman', to restore the original width.
Properly done and refinished, the repair will be practically invisible.
Make sure the wood is sealed well with finish to prevent further
warping. The practice of leaving chair bottoms unsealed leads to a lot
of cracked glue joints. Good luck!
Bugs
"pookie03" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi y'all, first time posting here. And I am glad to BE here.
>
> I was asked to repair and restore an ole child's rocking chair. The
> seat is cracked it a number of places and was repaired (badly I might
> say). The splits have glue coming from them and I am afraid the wood
> will split if I try to pry them open.
>
> Can anyone guide me as to how or what to use to soften this old glue so
> that I might remove it and repair with minimal damage?
>
> Again very happy to be a part of this group.
>
> Mike
>
White vinegar will soften some glue but don't use any metal scrapers or
you'll get black stain on the wood.
Gordon
pookie03 wrote:
> Hi y'all, first time posting here. And I am glad to BE here.
>
> I was asked to repair and restore an ole child's rocking chair. The
> seat is cracked it a number of places and was repaired (badly I might
> say). The splits have glue coming from them and I am afraid the wood
> will split if I try to pry them open.
>
> Can anyone guide me as to how or what to use to soften this old glue
> so that I might remove it and repair with minimal damage?
>
> Again very happy to be a part of this group.
>
> Mike
Any chance you could post a picture to the
"alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking" newsgroup? If we can see it, we
might be able to offer better advice.
--
--
Geoff Beale
Extract digit to email
On 7 Jan 2006 06:56:20 -0800, "pookie03" <[email protected]> wrote:
>I was asked to repair and restore an ole child's rocking chair.
>The splits have glue coming from them and I am afraid the wood
>will split if I try to pry them open.
What's the big deal with splits? It's rarely any harder to fix a total
split than a partial split, and access for cleaning it up and fixing it
is much better.
I'm assuming that this isn't an antique that needs conservation, you
simply need to fix it well and leave a neat job behind, not preserve
originality. I'd look at either biscuit jointing it, or even cutting a
couple of crosswise sliding dovetails into the underneath of the seat
and installing battens.