Expert: Eileen Cronk - 12/30/2007

Question
We have six dining room chairs, two with arms, four without.  The arms on the two chairs very nicely secure the back legs, but the back legs on the chairs without arms are somewhat movable.  Under the chair, there are wood corner braces going that are screwed, horizontally, into the side and back frames of the chairs.  Through the middle of the brace, vertically, is a screw that holds the seat in place.  There are no fasteners going into the legs from the sides or the braces, so I am assuming that there are dowels from the side and back frames into the legs.  An easy fix would be to use a corner brace from the leg to the wooden braces, but the screw holes for the seat fasteners are exactly where I would need to screw the leg braces.  How can I strengthen the legs?  I have photos if they will help solve the problem.  Thanks.


Answer
Hi Anne Marie
Nice to hear from you.
No need for pictures as I am very familiar with this chair construction..fixed a lot of them in my day LOL.
You are correct that interior dowels are holding these joints together. There are 2 dowels.The glue has failed, and possibly a dowel has broken.
Forget trying screws..it won't work, and you will compromise the chair strength.
I've actually had chairs come into my shop that folks have tried to nail together.
The fix is simple.
Remove the seat.
Remove the corner brackets (these are the pieces you describe that the seat is screwed to not the front ones which are OK)
First remove the two screws that hold the brackets.
The brackets are always glued as well as screwed, but I find in a lot of cases the glue has failed and the brackets fall right off when the screws are removed.
If the glue is still holding, a gentle couple of taps with a rubber mallet is all thats needed to get them off.
Next you must remove the chair back/ leg section as you say both back legs are loose. If only one is loose and firmy in place I would not mess with it as you can break it.
This sounds a bit imtimidating Mary but its not.
The idea is to expose the dowels so you can reglue.
The back section will come away from the sides with a few gentle taps with a rubber mallet, but I find in some cases they simply pull apart.
You don't mention if the chairs have stretchers but the back ones will have to come out.
Then clean out as much old glue as possible by scraping.
Then reglue all dowels and clamp together.
After I clamp my chairs together, that is when I reglue and screw the corner brackets back in place.
If by chance a dowel is broken, you will need to replace it. I won't go into a long explanation of how to do that now..lets hope yours are not broken.
Mary your question was "how can I strengthen the legs".
The answer I have given is the only way this can be done.
If you feel this is beyond doing for anyone in your household, I urge you to take the chairs to a wood shop.
This is not a costly repair, and done correctly it will last a lifetime.
Good Luck and great question
Regards
Eileen