Fixed It

Like an old house, you never where you're going to end up once you 'open the door'. We started out fixing the obvious broken leg in the second photo below, and before we knew it, we had both the back legs and the back splat off, which turned out to be a good thing. We were able to clean and reglue the joinery and the glue blocks and now I feel as if I can actually let the client sit in the chair when he gets it back. Construction was typical of the era, mortise and tenons on the seat rails and legs, a joint that solves the connection problem but also, over time typically develops weakness where the leg is mortised all the way through. It's not like new, but then again, I'm not either and I'm still going ....

We all just loved the face in the top rail

The obvious broken leg

The other back leg

The band clamp pulled it all together ... we'll put the screws back into the glue blocks tomorrow after the hide glue sets up ....

Funky Repair Project

OK .... Daryll and Daryll do 'anything for a buck'. I think that was a line from The Bob Newhart Show, back in he 80's .... 'This is my brother Daryll and this is my other brother Daryll' or something like that and they did anything for a buck. Anyway, I felt kind of like that about halfway through this repair today while all the other stuff was going on in the shop. This project came to me through a designer that I sometimes work with, and, in the end, it came out fine and we had a good time with it. I think it was the grandmother's game table, then the mother cut it off to make it a coffee table and now the daughter wants it to be a game table again. She did a great job finding some legs that matched amazingly well at Matthew Burak's Classic Designs in St. Johnsbury, VT .... We had to cut and paste them a bit, but in the end they look like they were made for the table. The square part on Matthew's leg was exactly the same size as the top of the original leg and the turning details broke so that we could get the table amazingly close to standard height at 30". We had a great time fixing the table and we especially liked the edge and apron design.....Click photos to enlarge ...

Stick these new legs on the bottom of the old ones

Step one .... make a jig to drill straight holes in the cut off legs

Step 2 ...completely disassemble the original legs and aprons and reglue them cause all the joints are loose

Step 3 .... cut the new legs in the right place and put some round tenons on them, mix up

some plastic resin glue and stick them on. Make sure they are STRAIGHT !!

We clamped a jig to the bottoms of them to keep them square and parallel. Tomorrow we'll put a little color on the new parts .... Good to go ...

Furniture Restoration and Repair

In the last few years Dan Mosheim and Dorset Custom Furniture has come to enjoy the repair and restoration of worthy furniture. We have repaired many pieces over the years, some that have historical value and others only with sentimental value for the client. While we have not gone to formal restoration school we have taken the time to educate ourselves on the proper restoration techniques currently endorsed by other professional restorers. In general, we enjoy keeping furniture alive and part of our clients' lives. The antique windsor writing chair below is a typical example of the process.