Saturday, September 17, 2011

basket case rescue

i wish i had taken a picture of this one when it came in the door. the back legs were completely sheared off at the seat, and the front legs were both broken off about where you see the hole in this one and we didn't have all the pieces. it was riding peacefully in the back of an open picked and was sucked out by the current created by a tractor trailer going in the other direction. the chair did not belong to the owner of the pickup, who was moving it for the owner, and he felt responsible for fixing it. i was going to take a pass, but i could see the fix he was in and also, he's a fellow member of the dorset chamber of commerce, will was friends with his daughter .. you know, all that stuff ... in the end, i took it on and it was kind of a 'test' if you will, and, in the end, i enjoyed the challenge. click the photos to enlarge them ...
in the end, there are three metal braces that sam made, two from 1/4 x 1/2" stock, and one from 14 guage flat, on each back leg. the front legs were considerably more complicated.
butt the broken piece on where it broke off ...
neaten up the hole, make a piece that fits in there; glue it in ...
make some saw cuts and bridge the break with a reinforcing piece
patch in the missing chip at the top
let it all dry and shape back to what it used to be ... add a little latex paint and stain for color.
move on to the other leg
cut off the broken, missing part
add something back with a couple 3/16ths dowel up into the leg
shape it and redo the little carving at the foot and...
ta dah ... all in, all done ... oh happy day ...

3 comments:

kct3937 said...

Once again, a good article. I am now having trouble with the photos. WHere before I got a large photo when I clicked on the pic, I now get a large photo and what appears to be a slide show…all the pics.

The problem is when I close the pic, I do not return to the small pic, I get kicked right out of the blog and have to re-enter. What have you changed? I don't know whether you have had any similar comments , but it's frustrating.

Regards,
Ken T

Ceil Petrucelli said...

Nice work, Dan! Glad you could make those repairs. Chair looks good as new!
Best
Ceil P

Nate said...

Really impressive, amazing restoration.