Fixing a leg

[collinb]

We picked up some Pennsylvania House cherry chairs. Wife likes them. But one broke with a mistaken move. I can’t find the same chair nearby so I am tasked with fixing it if possible. My thought is to notch the leg and glue in a block. Reinforced with small dowels or something. 

1. How might you do it?

2. Is it worth the effort?

[Dave H]

Bon fire! I'll get the weenies and marshmallows.

 

[treeslayer]

Well you’re a woodworker so I’d try to fix it, more pictures would help but just about anything can be fixed, might be a chance to hone some new skills, epoxy, color match

[wtnhighlander]

If the original piece broke away clean, you might glue it right back on, grain to grain. Then figure out how to make the joint stronger. I don't have good results with dowels, so I might cut them off, plug the mating holes, and make a loose tenon instead.

[Coop]

I agree, more pics would help. Downside is that it’s a chair and not a table and will get more stress.

[drzaius]

Check out Thomas Johnson's youtube channel. That sort of repair is right up his alley. It's an excellent channel.

[Chet]

On 4/14/2022 at 12:04 PM, drzaius said:

Check out Thomas Johnson's youtube channel. That sort of repair is right up his alley. It's an excellent channel.

I agree on this suggestion

[collinb]

More pics

the split and the surviving large piece 

[drzaius]

That is quite the mess. Good luck with it.

[collinb]

We called it

Time of death: 04/14/2022 at 6:00.

Now to shop around for a matching chair. They're out there but a slow find.

[Gary Beasley]

That leg looks basically like flatwork. Find a suitable cherry plank and trace the outline, cut it out and rout the contours. Hard part would be drilling matching dowel holes. I think what weakened it was too many holes too close together, not a great design.

[collinb]

On 4/15/2022 at 9:55 AM, Gary Beasley said:

That leg looks basically like flatwork. Find a suitable cherry plank and trace the outline, cut it out and rout the contours. Hard part would be drilling matching dowel holes. I think what weakened it was too many holes too close together, not a great design.

Cherry is by nature quite brittle. I considered cutting the offended part flat and adding a bevel into the main part of the leg and filling with a block accordingly. Epoxying it in rather than gluing. But I really didn't want to try to match the finish. It's like a walnut stain on cherry. I'd probably use a sander to match the contours instead of a router.

Aligning the dowels wouldn't be too difficult.

 

 

[Wimayo]

On 4/15/2022 at 8:55 AM, Gary Beasley said:

That leg looks basically like flatwork. Find a suitable cherry plank and trace the outline, cut it out and rout the contours. Hard part would be drilling matching dowel holes. I think what weakened it was too many holes too close together, not a great design.

I was about ready to write the same thing. Make a new leg and then try to spread out the spacing on all of those dowels if you can. I wonder if you could make a mortise and tenon on one side and dowels on the other. That might be stronger. It doesn't appear that the legs have any rungs further down to provide reinforcement. Lots of stress on that joint.