yes, we do repairs

i've always felt that a craftsman should fix stuff.  particularly stuff that is important to people who really like the stuff that is broken.  it might be a family piece, like this one, and have sentimental value, or it could be just a nice piece of furniture with a problem here or there, looking for the good life.  also, as a 

craftsperson, where else are you going to get to work on pieces like this one if you automatically just say

"i don't do repairs"  .. i mean, check this out .. fantastic unrestrained inlay work .. probably 18th century?  definitely english, as its owner is.  anyway, this was an onsite job, particularly enjoyable because we have been discussing fixing it off and on for, literally, years. click the photo to enlarge it.

all done today ... check that one out.  ready for the next hundred years.

we've had a run of repairs lately .. here's a shaker like cabinet that had no pulls, a funky fastener on the latch, a big water streak down the front of it and some shelves inside which we removed and replaced with a rod for hanging clothes.  it's got some charm now.

and how often do you see a paper mache tilt top table?  never knew there was such a  thing.
love the scrap abalone oval, what would you call it?,  an applique?

this one had a painting fall on it .. that broke the paper base where the column screwed in. we also added a new catch where before the hinged block was screwed together so it couldn't flip up

technically, this wasn't a repair.  we just made a new base for the top.  the center of the table is a square of reclaimed french parquet floor.  the real thing!  hand hewn from solid wood, with a clever, rustic, mechanism that changes it from a 44 " square to a 62" round

here you can see the mechanism and the 'hand hewn' nature of the original floor

tah dah!  the top is darker, and the base is lighter, in real life ... overhead florescent lights ..

another nostalgic funky family piece .. had a big crack in the side and back, and the two front feet and one of the back feet were loose and had to be removed and reset.

haven't seen it yet with all the drawers.  only one drawer needed work

and this piece ... holy moly !  braziliab rosewood danish modern, damaged in shipping.  another onsite repair

cool piece ..

loved the interior bar detail and and way they cut the doors with the angles on them..
only the left one is open enough to see that.

better now, not perfect, but better

and we recently did six of these .. removing worn out brass casters on the front legs,

and turning new balled feet for the front legs

this is the connector from the trestle table below

as you can see in the photo below, the wedge grounded out on the edge of the hole before the table tightened up.  we squared up the inside edge and made new wedges.  it's solid as a rock now.

we also added a foot to each end to make it a 12' table

and we're working slowly on the doors below ... engineering a frame to hang them .. interesting challenge. they are too short, and too wide for the hole.  i have a plan ...

and we've got a very cool 12 foot walnut table going too .. more on that later

almost forgot this one ... it had a very clever sliding dovetail joint between the back leg and the 1/2" thick top rail.  had to trim off one side and reglue .. should be fine .. it's part of a daily use kitchen set ..

A Quick Windsor Repair

We do this repair pretty often ... Broken bow .... We set it up so we can rout accurately with a small laminate trimmer, first the fromt usually, then the back, which is a little more complicated. we glue the repair pieces on as we rout. This bow was hickory and we had some ... Rout, glue, rout, glue, file trim, sand, color ... Will did this one and it went by so fast I didn't even get pictures of the intermediate steps... The chair was a worthy example though and it looked good when it was done ...
Broken
Front view finished ... A good save ..
Repair zones ... one side is usually longer than the other to (hopefully) eliminate new weak spots
Close up .... can't hardly tell ...

High Chest Repair

We fixed the loose molding and big corner chips on this worthy high chest this week. We were able to remove the end moldings and reglue them with hide glued. It appeared that it was the first time the original end moldings were off the chest since it was built. The front molding, however, was more stubborn and had some serious big nails in the face of it. We had to settle for prying, cleaning and regluing with hide glue while the molding remained in place. Seems to have worked fine and the chest is headed back to its home tomorrow .... Click the pictures to enlarge..

We attempt to remove the loose front molding

Regluing the front molding without getting it off the case

Gluing a new piece on the miter of the short molding

Routing the broken section of the long front molding for the repair piece

The completed repair

Back to storage