Just fixed a broken chair leg with a wood dowel and super glue

I was about to throw out this old dining chair that had a snapped leg, but then I remembered I had a bag of wooden dowels from a project two years ago. I drilled a hole in both broken pieces, put some super glue on a 4 inch dowel, and jammed it in there. After clamping it overnight, the leg is solid as a rock and didn't cost me a dime. I did this last Tuesday and it's held up through a week of dinner use. Has anyone else tried using dowels for repairs like this, or do you have a better trick for fixing snapped wood?

2 comments

2 Comments

wyatt13513d ago

Read something the other day about how furniture fixers use this method with wood glue instead of super glue because the wood glue soaks into the grain better. Super glue can work in a pinch though, especially if you roughed up the dowel a bit first to give it some grip. I’ve used the same trick on an old rocking chair arm that split. A little beeswax on the dowel helps it slide in without stripping the glue off. Just something to keep in mind for next time.

gavin22813d ago

Wyatt135 brings up a good point about wood glue, but super glue has saved my bacon more than once on jobsite repairs where nothing else was handy. I had a buddy try this on a broken shovel handle once, and it actually held for a few months before the wood finally gave out somewhere else. So for a dining chair leg, you're probably good unless your family eats like a herd of elephants.