Fixing Old Wooden Chairs

[62woollybugger]

I've somehow been tasked with fixing about a dozen wobbly old wooden chairs from the local Cranky Womens Association hall. The joints are all loose & some are missing one of the gussets between the seat & back uprights. It looks like they are just dowel joints, so I'll try to pull them all apart & redo them.
What I wnt to know is how can I easily make the replacement gussets, as the existing ones look like they're made with bent laminations. As I don't want to have to build a former & steamer to steam bend & glue laminations, would cutting them from boards, with the grain at 45* to the flat faces be strong enough?
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[markharrison]

Are you sure those gussets are original? They look like an after thought to me, probably put in place to compensate for wobbly joints. I can't imagine that they add that much strength to the joint.

[Simplicity]

Are you sure those gussets are original? They look like an after thought to me, probably put in place to compensate for wobbly joints. I can't imagine that they add that much strength to the joint.

What he said
They look like a quick dirty fix, that didn’t work !!

Cheers Matt,

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

...and no, cutting 'em with the grain at 45deg won't have the same strength. Too many short shear lines.

[62woollybugger]

Thanks guys. They look to be original, all dozen or so chairs have them. As they look to be laminated, it wouldn't have been a quick fix, a lot of work has gone into making & shaping them to fit. Considering the amount of work required, I might suggest they just buy some new chairs.

[Bohdan]

You could also try using https://www.timbecon.com.au/chair-doctor-glue as a quick fix that may actually work.

[auscab]

You do see gussets like those used in chairs . Specially on Beech bentwood chairs . Every other part of a bentwood is steam bent and a couple of bent gussets for strength was the norm .

They do look like an added idea someone has come up with on that chair for sure.
You have a normal sawn wood constructed factory chair and all of a sudden there is two steam bent bits added which are in the way , different colour and no other part of the chair is made that way .

I had the same problem with a bentwood missing the same corner gusset .The fastest way I could come up with for a replacement was to go looking for a bent dry branch off a tree . If not a dry one then a wet one and let it dry after shaping . The customer wasn't wanting to pay me to make a one off by steam bending . Once I pointed out all the repair options and how long each would take for the whole chair the lady didn't want to go ahead with any . She gave up on it .

[markharrison]

Thanks guys. They look to be original, all dozen or so chairs have them. As they look to be laminated, it wouldn't have been a quick fix, a lot of work has gone into making & shaping them to fit. Considering the amount of work required, I might suggest they just buy some new chairs.


Yeah, fair enough. The only value they have is the utility value of keeping bums off of the floor; or firewood. Given that they're are useless to sit on, they're more valuable as firewood...