Repairs to a table edge

Hi Frank,
Without knowing your tools and skill level and how much you want to do, here is a suggestion.
Sand or cut the splintered area flat. Glue on a new pc that would be over sized then trim it up, back to making it flat and square with the top, then re-rout the profile back on to it. . Hope that makes sense.

Hang out a while and you will get some more suggestions also.
What kind of filler did you try, and why did you give up?
If there is a way for you to post a picture of it? That would really help also.
Good Luck
Bently

Here’s a look at what I am faced with :

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Charleszen/damage.jpg

Hope that works!

-- --I belong to too many forums --

If that is one of the leaves, would be possible to see a pic of the other one to have a more clear idea?

W e l c o m e to LumberJocks!

-- Francisco Luna, San Francisco Bay Area.

Hmmm,
It looks to me like the whole end needs to be cut off and a new pc added. You could probably just cut off the damage and rout the new cove onto the end but it would end up being a little shorter on the sides.

Couple more pics to make it more clear:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Charleszen/dsc00068.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Charleszen/dsc00067.jpg

That should do it

.

-- --I belong to too many forums --

I would do what bentlyj advise…
I would use also some dowels to glue the new piece.

-- Francisco Luna, San Francisco Bay Area.

If that table was brought to me by a client I would suggest the following repair.
Machine off the damaged area to get a clean, firm work surface and then glue a new piece to it.
I feel that a long grain to long grain (not end grain) glue joint needs no dowels or bisquits. A well made glue-only joint will likely be stronger than adjacent original wood.
After gluing a new piece to it the shape can be restored by machining or hand work.
Appropriate staining and finish should be done to make the new work blend with the old.
d

-- If a man says something in the forest and there's no woman to hear it, is he still wrong?

I’ve done a number of table repairs over the past few years, both for myself and for paying customers. bentlyj and donbee are correct in their approach. With out the broken piece, you are going to have to build that area back up so it will hold up to use in the future. By carefully cutting away the damaged area down that edge of the table and replacing it with a solid wood strip, you create a joint that is as strong as the rest of the table.

Once that is done, you can use dyes to blend the new wood to match the existing wood. Once the color is right, I would use a good quality gloss polyurethane. I use Gloss because there are no fillers in it that tone down the gloss. If the customer wants a more subdued finish, you can always rub down a gloss to a semi gloss or satin finish, you can’t polish up a satin finish to a gloss, because of those fillers.

-- Greg - Charles Town, WV

The only thing I would add to the good advice already given, is to keep scrap pieces of the wood you will be using to repair the edge and experiment with the dyes and finishes before actually applying them to the repair.

Dalec

Well I guess we have a consensus. Good suggestions all. And I guess I have got a couple of hours of work ahead of me. Thanks to all for helping out this amateur!!

I’ll post pics when it’s all done.

p.s Donbee—love your sig !

-- --I belong to too many forums --

Another option might be to just trim 1/4 to 3/8 inch off that leaf.

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

If you can find a match ofr the original bead a cove on the table you should consider taking a few hairs off the bead side as it was obviously binding by the look of the screws holes and the stress crack.
The other fellows have already instructed you for the repair itself so I wont repeat that part.

Good luck

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

I agree with the replace a piece idea. If I were cutting off a piece, I’d use a fine tooth hand saw or plywood blade on a table saw to cut off a tapered piece to keep chip out to a minimum or put some masking tape over the area you saw, & then run the table piece through a jointer to get a good clean glue joint edge. Good luck. -SST

-- Accuracy is not in your power tool, it's in you

Bob #2 – Good idea. I was wondering what caused that crack and now it’s obvious the leaf was binding somewhere. There is a steel pin on top of one of the butterflys that is missing on the other one…thats the one that supported the leaf with the missing piece.

Incidentally the table came to me with one leaf off and two hinges missing. I found the EXACT match on-line at a place called Horton Brasses. Great people there..efficient as all get out.

-- --I belong to too many forums --

OK I’m back after a week or so of mostly handwork. I first cut the damaged area off being VERY careful not to split or splinter anything. I then ourchased an 8 foot length of oak cove molding…cut it to fit the length and started working it to blend in. A lot of sanding…then when it was finished, filling with a colored wood filler and more sanding.
The results ? Better than I thought !!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Charleszen/dsc00072.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Charleszen/dsc00069.jpg

If you’ve forgotten what it looked like before:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Charleszen/damage.jpg

Now all that remains is even more sanding, and the finishing. Had to do a couple of other minor repairs..such as replacing a one inch length of dowel which the butterflys rotate on.

But the end is coming.

Thanks to all for suggestions…I’m sure I’ll be back – I have a number of projects planned.

-- --I belong to too many forums --

Looks good well done. In the past I’ve just cut a piece of of both sides and rerouted the ruled edges

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture ,maker, woodworking school, heirloomwoodshop.com

Got it finished finally—- still have to make some minor adjustments on the hinge positions to close up the gap at one end of oneof the leaves…but I’m taking a break right now!

Here’s some pics:

The finish is Cabernet stain with 3 coats of gloss poly…I’ll rub it down to satin later.

That’s it for now.
Thanks to all for their help!

-- --I belong to too many forums --