Maybe 18 months ago, I bought a gorgeous Scandinavian dining set-dining room table, 7 chairs, and a sideboard/buffet, for $800, used. A fabulous deal!

The only downside was that about six months ago, the glue in the chairs joints became noticeably loose. Local repair shops were asking $6K to repair and reupholster them.

Fool that I can be, after looking at a couple of YouTube videos, I told my wife, "I can do that for a lot less."

So I bought a couple of bar clamps to use as spreaders-I already had chisels, rubber mallet, etc.

I got two chairs apart, and they were beasts. I looked online for "how to dissolve woodglue" but didn't find anything useful. Then I put the second chair back together, in the wrong freaking order, so I couldn't finish it. At the point I gave up.

Coming up on Thanksgiving, wife asks, "About those chairs...." So after a little bit of searching, I found out that you can use a heat-gun to melt wood glue. So I bought one

Over the weekend, I got on it, and what was taking me days with just the clamps and chisels took a few hours with the heat gun-magic! I got the misassembled chair unassembled and then properly reassembled yesterday. Now I'm on to the others, and feeling competent-it feels good!

good tip!

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just make sure you're not "roasting" the wood while doing that... you may find it's a different color after.

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Hurts like a bastid...

Great point! This heatgun goes up to 1100 degrees F, so I'm keeping it dialed down to about 300. So far, that's not causing any problems. So far.....

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mrbigstuff
just make sure you're not "roasting" the wood while doing that... you may find it's a different color after.

Yes, this works with some types of wood glue, but not all. For the rest it will take taps with a good rubber mallet to separate the joints.

And prying with chisels.....speaking from recent experience.

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JoeH
Yes, this works with some types of wood glue, but not all. For the rest it will take taps with a good rubber mallet to separate the joints.

Nicely done…. I’ve cheated in the past by buying glue syringes and injecting glue after drilling a pilot hole…

Chair leader!

Bear in mind that most wood glues—Titbeond and its ilk—don't stick to themselves, so for a good bond, traces of the glue need to be removed before re-gluing. The only wood glue I know of, besides epoxy, that sticks to itself is hide glue.

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Yup. Much laborious scraping with chisels, and sandpapering has been involved. Oh, and much careful drilling out of dried glue in mortises....yuch.

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lost in space
Chair leader!

Bear in mind that most wood glues—Titbeond and its ilk—don't stick to themselves, so for a good bond, traces of the glue need to be removed before re-gluing. The only wood glue I know of, besides epoxy, that sticks to itself is hide glue.

I've got a heat gun, mainly used for heat shrink tubing, but have found the odd use here and there.

One thing that really bothers me is that it stays very hot after being powered off, for much longer than I'd like.

I have to be very mindful of where I let it rest, lest I be reminded of the heat issue.

Now I have small butane torch, mainly for the time I'll finally get 'round to making crème brûlée, but it also works well on heat shrink tubing with nearly immediate cool down.

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I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

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Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

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Everybody counts or nobody counts.

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You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

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And hope is a lousy defense.

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anonymouse1
Yup. Much laborious scraping with chisels, and sandpapering has been involved. Oh, and much careful drilling out of dried glue in mortises....yuch.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2023 09:39PM by lost in space.

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cbelt3
Nicely done…. I’ve cheated in the past by buying glue syringes and injecting glue after drilling a pilot hole…

there is also something you can inject like that that swells the wood, locking the joiint.

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"Defending your own life when in immediate danger to me is a basic right of each person. " Lemon Drop 11/17/2023 03:10 pm

Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008) Private citizens have the right under the Second Amendment to possess an ordinary type of weapon and use it for lawful, historically established situations such as self-defense in a home, even when there is no relationship to a local militia.

"The conclusion is thus inescapable that the history, concept, and wording of the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well as its interpretation by every major commentator and court in the first half-century after its ratification, indicates that what is protected is an individual right of a private citizen to own and carry firearms in a peaceful manner." Right to Keep and Bear Arms: Report of the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-seventh Congress, Second Session. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1982. Digitized September 30, 2008.

From the NYSRPA v Bruen "Today, we decline to adopt that two-part approach. . . . Despite the popularity of this two-step approach, it is one step too many. Step one of the predominant framework is broadly consistent with Heller, which demands a test rooted in the Second Amendment's text, as informed by history."