# Having trouble removing legs from chair



## maxhall (May 16, 2012)

Hey everyone my wife picked 4 of these chairs up a while back for our dining room and I'm finally getting to them. As is the case with most old chairs several of the joints are loose so I was planning on diassembling, cleaning out old glue, regluing, and clamping them back together. I can't for the life of me figure out what is holding this front leg on. I removed the screw from the brace underneath (which appears to be the only fastener holding it in place, I know this doesn't make sense, should be more to it than that) I removed the fabric from around the leg in question and made sure it wasn't nailed/screwed from the top wooden support into the top of the leg. I can wiggle the leg about an 1/8" but the leg is staying put. My only guess is that behind the brace there may be a screw joining the leg to the frame, I just cant tell because of the brace. The brace is nailed and screwed on either side, so removing the nails may be a bit of a challenge.

Any ideas of what could be holding that leg in place?
Also how would you stabilize the leg? I feel it needs something else to make it more stable.


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## pjones46 (Mar 1, 2011)

Normally there is a hanger bolt thru the brace into the leg,sometimes I have seen a wood screw vs the hanger bolt. Were you able to remove the semicircular support? Could be even wood dowels into the leg from the sides.


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## GregInMaryland (Mar 11, 2010)

Have you removed the cushion? Perhaps there is something from the top?

Greg


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## realcowtown_eric (Feb 4, 2013)

In the third picture, is that a filled nail hole i see? Check it out with a rare-earth magnet.

good luck

Eric


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## SilverbackReef (Apr 26, 2010)

Doing some chair repair myself at the moment and ran across this article:

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/techniques/finishing/regluing_doweled_chairs

He recommends removing the braces first. Good luck!


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## gsurgeon (Aug 25, 2012)

The leg is more than likely doweled to the skirt. The brace seems to be still held in place with some glue. See if warm water will make the glue sticky. This would tell you whether or not it's hide glue. If it is, you can try and get some hot water into that joint and it should come apart.


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## Dal300 (Aug 4, 2011)

If the glue is hide glue, use the hair dryer that your wife owns, (just be prepared to buy her a new one.
Hide glue will soften and be reusable even after 100 years. Just add more hide glue in the proper way.

If it is PVA glue, (Titebond or Gorilla wood glue, it will soften, but isn't reusable).


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