Chair legs play an essential role in providing good support to the setting area and making the whole assembly stable.
How to Fix a Broken Leg on a Dining Room Chair? You can fix a broken leg on a dining room chair with good quality glue and by adding a wedge in its tenon joint. In addition, you can repair the crack by adding a long rigid wood piece in the broken area after tightening it with glue.
There are different methods to fix a broken leg if all the repairing parts of the chair are present. Here are 0 easy methods to do it yourself at home.
Secure the chair leg assembly with glue
Due to age, the chair’s leg starts to show cracks that can quickly fix by adding strong adhesive in them.
The cracking is most commonly visible in those formed by combining two to three wooden pieces during the manufacturing process.
These wooden pieces are joined together with glue and then cut and shaped into the chair. Unfortunately, when you put extra weight on these chairs than their capacity or lean back on them, these glued parts become crack.
Apply wax and glue on the broken area
For fixing the dining room chair, you need to apply wax around the damaged area. It will assist in removing extra glue from the surface area with the help of a damp cloth.
You need to add a thin wedge on the broken site and use a syringe to precisely fill the adhesive in these broken parts.
You can use a sharp blade for spreading the glue precisely on the lower end of the crack or insert the syringe in it to fill the gaps with adhesive.
Now remove the wedge from the area and clamp the broken pieces together for approximately one to two days. You can also add a dowel on the opposite side of the crack to secure the whole assembly more precisely.
Adding wooden pieces inside the broken leg of the chair
Due to manufacturing defects or faulty framework, the leg of the chair breaks easily. The breakage occurs due to the curved grain; thus, its direction changes from the board’s direction and makes an angle with the leg.
Inserting wood pieces in the slot
You can fix the broken part of the leg by adding a thick layer of glue to it and solving the curved grain problem. After adding glue, clamp the area for one or two days.
You can treat the curved grain problem by inserting a long or thin wooden piece into the leg that maintains its structure and supports it.
Making slots in the dining room chair
For adding a long piece of wood into the glued area, you need to make a hole in the leg with an easy-to-use router. Then, measure the width of the holes and cut the long piece of wood according to it.
Shape your wooden piece according to the shape of curved grain with the bandsaw.
Now measure the depth of the hole, mark it on your wooden piece with the help of a marker, and then cut the extra base from it.
According to your slot, round the edges of the wooden piece by using a washer of your router’s diameter and then cut it.
Now add a thick layer of glue on it, place it inside the slot, and clamp the area for three to four hours.
Level its surface
You need to level the surface of the leg with the help of a chisel. Be extra careful while doing this step to prevent accidental injuries to the surrounding area.
Next, paint the site with matching colors to provide a more neat and artistic look.
Securing tenon with thread and glue
Due to excessive wear and tear, the legs become loose and get damaged from their joints. If you find and treat the loose joints on time, you can easily prevent breakage.
The most inexpensive method of fixing a broken leg that gets damaged due to a loose tenon connection is adding glue and wrapping it with thread. For this purpose, you need to separate the broken piece from the chair’s frame.
You can also detach the damaged leg by using a plier but pad the holding area thoroughly to prevent wood damages in it.
Now remove the old glue from both sites to avoid attachment problems.
Check the damaged tenon connection of the leg and reinforce it by adding a thin layer of glue. After that, wrap the area with the help of silk thread.
When the adhesive becomes completely dry, cover it with another layer of thread and glue. Finally, place the leg assembly in a secure place so that the glued tenon becomes completely dry.
After some time, apply another layer of glue on the tenon connection and then into the joint hole.
Now insert the leg into the joint hole and clamp the area for a day or two. After that, examine the process by wiggling the leg slightly.
Add wedge on the loose connection
You can also repair a loose leg joint by adding a wedge in the tenon.
Clamp the area and cut the tenon center very carefully with a saw according to its thickness. It would help if you cut the whole area inside the hole.
Take a piece of softwood, make a thin wedge from it that matches with the width and depth of the cut in the tenon.
Place the wedge in the cut and tap it with a mallet to make the tenon slightly enlarge that fit perfectly inside the big joint hole.
When the wedge fits inside the cut perfectly, you need to trim off the extra wood from the top of the wedge using a knife. Now add a thick layer of glue on the tenon end and insert it inside the joint.
Add matchsticks into the loose hole
You can tight the loose tenon connection by adding one or two matchsticks in the joint hole. After that, add a layer of glue on the tenon and reinsert it in the hole.
Rotate the leg assembly in a counterclockwise direction. The matchsticks will provide more friction and pressure to the leg and hold the leg assembly more tightly.
Add a thick layer of glue on its side and clamp it. Test the strength of the leg connection by shaking it slightly.
Fix the joints by adding nails to it
The chair legs most commonly break from its joint i-e the area where it meets with the seat frame or with the side and the cross stretchers. Examine every joint of the chair and remove the loose or broken one.
Clean the area and the joint connection from the old adhesive and dust with a knife or scrapper.
Next, apply good quality glue on the tenon and hole, and then clamp the area for some time to let the glue completely dry.
After that, hold the joint firmly with your hand from the opposite side, make a drill hole in it. You need to drill the slot at an angle with the leg and place the long thin nail in it.
The nail must be greater in size than the tenon connection of the leg. First, remove the nail’s head by using a hacksaw, add glue on it, then insert it deep inside the drill hole.
Finally, add a layer of wood filler on its top and sand the area to give it a finishing look.
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