Non-motoring > Dowel or screw
Thread Author: Mapmaker Replies: 20
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New Fri 4 Mar 11 09:48 
 Dowel or screw - Mapmaker
I have a dining chair (mahogany, antique) with a crack in the back vertical piece at the point where the seat joins the upright.

Do I drill a hole and insert a dowel and glue it, or do I drill a pilot hole and use a long screw instead?

Part of the join will be going across the grain, part along the grain.
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New Fri 4 Mar 11 10:05 
 Dowel or screw - Fenlander
Is the seat a drop in on a frame? Assuming so do you think the original joint is mortise & tenon with the tenon on the seat rail section and mortise cut into the leg? If so and you are thinking of a dowel going through the side of the leg and so through the tenon that would be a decent repair. You'll need a mahogany dowel... if not use a short dowel and make up a couple of mahogany dowel caps and couour to match.

Having said that if the chair has real value taking apart and starting off with glueing and cramping the split first will make a better job
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New Fri 4 Mar 11 11:55 
 Dowel or screw - Zero
Its a bit crass, but for best mechanical repair and longevity a screw. A dowel can not compress the crack together like a screw. I would try and introduce glue into the crack before hand as well.

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New Fri 4 Mar 11 11:57 
 Dowel or screw - Fenlander
>>> best mechanical repair and longevity a screw.

No... the best mechanical repair would be a bolt with self-locking nut and large washers but.....

:-)
Last edited by: Fenlander on Fri 4 Mar 11 at 11:59
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New Fri 4 Mar 11 12:03 
 Dowel or screw - Iffy
...No... the best mechanical repair would be a bolt with self-locking nut and large washers but...

And a couple of bits of Dexion shelving to act as a splint.
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New Fri 4 Mar 11 12:11 
 Dowel or screw - henry k
>>Dowel or screw
or talk to the experts?
www.bafra.org.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=27

I have used Chair Doctor on normal furniture and it seems to work quite well
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New Fri 4 Mar 11 12:04 
 Dowel or screw - Zero
No the best repair would be some steel plates screwed onto the side, but...
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New Fri 4 Mar 11 12:06 
 Dowel or screw - Mapmaker
>> No the best repair would be some steel plates screwed onto the side, but...

Absolutely.
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New Fri 4 Mar 11 12:05 
 Dowel or screw - Mapmaker
Drop-in-seat Regency dining chair. Value in today's market few tenners if lucky.

Glueing and cramping the split is a part of the repair when either dowelled/screwed. The rest of the chair is sound, I don't really want to dismantle the whole thing. It's hard work.

Split is probably somewhere in the mortise cut in the leg.

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New Fri 4 Mar 11 12:10 
 Dowel or screw - Fenlander
>>>Split is probably somewhere in the mortise cut in the leg.

So probably best with a glued dowel plus split glued/cramped. The screw will have very little to grip on if it's trying to pull the crack in on half the leg thickness less the mortise width??
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New Fri 4 Mar 11 12:14 
 Dowel or screw - FotheringtonTomas
That wasn't a photograph, or even a link to one.
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New Fri 4 Mar 11 12:16 
 Dowel or screw - Fenlander
And of course a proper glue pot on the stove with animal glue... none of the white stuff!
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New Fri 4 Mar 11 12:25 
 Dowel or screw - Mapmaker
Never used a glue pot, I admit, titebond hide glue instead.
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New Fri 4 Mar 11 12:30 
 Dowel or screw - Zero
A dowel will add no inherent strength to the situation, in fact add weakness. Dowels are only designed to stop wood joins moving,
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New Fri 4 Mar 11 12:05 
 Dowel or screw - FotheringtonTomas
Need a picture or two.
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New Fri 4 Mar 11 14:01 
 Dowel or screw - Fenlander
>>>A dowel will add no inherent strength to the situation

Ahh depends. I guess my mind is thinking the split is in the back of the leg allowing play in the joint in which case a dowel that holds the tenon into the leg can only help.

Never underestimate the power of proper trad melted glue... and the horror of random screws in antiques!!

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New Fri 4 Mar 11 14:05 
 Dowel or screw - Zero
I did say it was crass. But from Mappys price estimate, it does not sound like we are destroying the nations heritage here. I doubt Thos Chippendale is turning in his grave.
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New Fri 4 Mar 11 14:09 
 Dowel or screw - Fenlander
>>> I doubt Thos Chippendale is turning in his grave.

Ha perhaps not but after 40+ yrs involved with such things extra screws in the real old stuff is like filler in a chassis to me.

>>> titebond hide glue

Yes lots of folks use it with good results... nothing like the family glue pot passed from father to son though.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Fri 4 Mar 11 at 14:09
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New Fri 4 Mar 11 14:29 
 Dowel or screw - Crankcase

>>
>> Yes lots of folks use it with good results... nothing like the family glue pot
>> passed from father to son though.
>>

That's such a feed line, but it's Friday, so you can make your own darn jokes.

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New Fri 4 Mar 11 15:40 
 Dowel or screw - Ted

You'll get no sense from half this lot !

Big nail, whack it in well.

Go on.....you know you want to !

Ted
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New Fri 4 Mar 11 15:52 
 Dowel or screw - Tooslow
You've attended the Jeremy Clarkson School of DIY and come away with a certificate I see?

John
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