Saturday, March 6, 2021

A Repair Job....


 We had a dinning room chair that broke.  The brace that held the leg to the chair collapsed.  After seeing how it was constructed, I could see they tightened the bolts too tight that fit into the leg and it broke the poorly made brace.


 I will tell you it was made in China and if we knew that we probably would not have purchased it.  The brace was made of a wood that reminds me of our glued up particle board. I had to use a little magic with the miter saw to match the angles.  I use a piece of pine wood for the replacement. 



 I repaired it using the same engineering of the original.  The bolt s were strong enough but it was a surprise to me to see China using our dry wall screws to secure it, to keep it from sliding out of the corner with glue in place.


 We bought the whole set while living in the old house. We had a hard time finding the style that fit into that old one hundred year old house's dining room.  When we saw this style at the J.C. Penny Home store we really did like it.  I didn't take time to look at the kind of woods and how the chairs were constructed. The rails on the legs are glued in but from underneath the also put a diagonal screw into each end to hold it in to the hole.  It is not Amish furniture quality construction.  

I am going to have to now take the seats off of each one and reinforce them with a thin plywood as the seats are sagging. If I do that the chairs may make it for as long as I am alive. I didn't mention that the finish does seem to be wearing off of a strange unfamiliar kind of wood.  Anyway, all in all it still looks really good in our new dining room area.  The movers were really impressed with it when they set it up in the newer house. They said they would like to come back for Thanksgiving dinner. Anyway, I just don't think that I should have to rebuild it after six or seven  years of ownership. It is a reminder of buyer beware. I really don't want to change it out though as I do still like the table top. 


I found it under the bed as I was cleaning the rug. It had fallen off the tree that I had in the window of the room.  It is a fake antique ornament I bought.  I really liked the set of 9 ornaments because of the antique look.  Now that they are 47 years old since I purchased them they are almost real antiques.  It is funny what one remembers about things in life.  I bought these in a kitchen store in a mall in Omaha.  Every store in Nebraska played the football game on the speakers in every store.  I remember picking up the box of ornaments and buying them while the cashier was so excited about what was going on with the game. It is strange what the brain chooses to recall.

Enough for me rambling on today.  Thanks for stopping by today.


2 comments:

The Great Ethan Allen said...

Amish = Mortise and Tenon. I'm sure that some Amish might take a few shortcuts now a days. But the wood would be a high quality. (Maple, oak or ash) I generalize, but I have visited a furniture store here in the middle of Amish country and those are the stereotypes. Sometimes they are rather "fancy" which is not what I would think. Curved legs and carved backs. I would have thought their furniture would have been more simple and plain.
Fixing old furniture can be fun though. I once repaired an old Grand Rapids Chair from Westinghouse. It was from the early '50's and the previous owner used "Nails" (NAILS!?!?!) to repair a loose support for the back. Obviously, it split the wood and was useless until I got hold of it. Glue, dowels, clamps.. little bit of sanding and stain and it was almost like new. Fun process.

Far Side of Fifty said...

That was a good fix, sad you had to do it but furniture is disposable for most people! WE have a log dining room set...it will never wear out! :)