I have an ancient and rather ugly office chair which I love to pieces. Unfortunately, on Thursday morning, the chair attempted to make that literal, as I sat down and heard a nasty splintering sound. Now, I got this thing secondhand, and it’s always had a vertical split up one wooden leg. My brother had run four large carriage bolts through it in an attempt to hold it together, which in hidsight turned out to be a bad idea, as one half of the leg had split in the opposite direction along the line of the first two bolts. ☹️
Removing the bolts, applying a rather considerable amount of wood glue and some dowels, then clamping it, letting it dry, and cleaning up got me to the point shown in the picture (larger version here )
What I need to know is, is there anything I can do to structurally reinforce this thing any further, short of replacing either that leg (beyond my skill level at the moment) or the entire base (a new one would have to be shipped up from the US)? In particular, would “splinting” it with a piece of new wood along the damaged side (or pieces along both sides) help keep it from tearing itself apart? Or should I just redrill the hole for the castor further away from the end, put a couple of C-clamps on, and hope it holds long enough for a new base to arrive?
I want my chair back. 😭
Wood glue and dowels has already helped a lot, but I think using a new piece of wood as a splint would be great (I used that method to fix a very similar situation with our picnic table, and it’s still holding up many years later). Just make sure to attach it with wood screws, and drill pilot holes first, to prevent any further damage.
Ramen and superglue
Dowels glued in place will almost certainly be stronger than the bolts. However, depending on whether you care how pretty or ugly it is, it might be worthwhile to get 2-3 large hose clamps to wrap around the joined pieces, and cinch them up tight. That should provide support around the wood to minimize the chance of the wood trying to split out in the same direction as before.
Note that it might help to show a picture of how things are supposed to go together? I originally thought these were two separate pieces which mated together (which is why I suggested gluing dowels through “both” pieces), but I just realized that it is actually two separate shots of the same piece, so I’m not quite sure what this is supposed to be attached to.
It’s a single piece of wood that has split in three—vertically first, then one of the halves split horizontally. The chair base entire is five pieces of wood—a round center post about 8 inches in diameter and four legs. It’s held together primarily by a metal bracket on the underside (looks like this ), and there’s another circular metal plate on the top with four screws. It’s one of the four leg pieces that is damaged.
Based on your advice and that of other people here, my current game plan looks like this:
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Buy a straight piece of hardwood 2-3 inches wide and at least half an inch thick from the lumber yard, plus two or three hose clamps.
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Sand the lacquer off the more damaged side of the split leg, glue the splint on (possibly with reinforcing dowels) and clamp tightly.
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After letting that dry overnight, redrill the hole for the caster a bit further back than the original, wrap hose clamps around the entire mess, and cross my fingers.
At worst, this wastes a few hours of my time and $20 CAD or so. A compatible replacement base capable of handling my weight and that of the chair is about $200 USD (plus shipping and customs) from the only firm I know of that still makes replacement parts for chairs with bell-and-post mechanisms. A modern base intended for a gas lift chair almost certainly won’t fit.
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I’m grabbing popcorn for this one …
(Not to be one of those people who comments but doesn’t offer help, if it were me I’d replace the entire base. One possible suggestion - find a different base second hand and adapt it to fit the chair. There is no karmic rule that says the base has to be the same brand as the chair, or even match it. It all depends on how the existing chair attaches. You might even take the modifications to an extreme).
For those curious about the outcome: I added a red oak splint with dowels and two hose clamps and reassembled the chair on Sunday. So far everything’s held and there have been no more disturbing splintering noises.
What I would do and i’ll preface this by it may be beyond repair.
On the bottom dril 1/2 holes and add dowels like you did on the side. that will help reinforce that split.
Then to try and save it get a 1/8 " metal or aluminum strip and drill holes in it for screws. 4-6 even spaced. then get screws that go about halfway into the leg from the bottom. screw that metal piece on it (bottom of leg). make sure its as long as like 3/4 of that leg and just a hair less wide. that should add some structural strength.
again it may be too weakened but why not try…
