Repairing a Mid Century Chair
Our dining room chairs are showing their age (circa 1960s). Wobbly legs and some rough patches-- I typically like the well lived, worn with character look of furniture and homes but chairs should be sturdy.
Here is a summary of a chair repair-- fixing broken dowels and replacing them with new ones. Some of the instructions weren't captured on video because my phone ran out of memory! A rubber mallet is essential to getting the chairs parts loose. Some of the old glue made it more difficult to separate the joints. I used a blow dryer to warm up some of the old glue and that seemed to help.
Not really shown in the video was the re-assembly of the chair. That took a bit more patience as you need to tap all the joints a little at a time so everything fits back in. I used some Gorilla Wood Glue to secure the joints. When everyone was back together and extra glue wiped off, I used a cotton rope to tighten the chair and set in place to dry. I used a wooden rod to form a tourniquet so the chair was bound tightly to dry.
I used steel wool to sand off some worn patches then rubbed in some water-based Minwax Express Color Wiping Stain and Finish Walnut stain to blend with the natural patina.
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