Crack in pine leg
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Hi, greetings from Argentina!
This is my very first big project in woodworking with hand tools. I’ve just finished the 2 leg frames for the workbench series, and while trying to fit the last tenon in the mortise I applied a lot of “science” with the hammer and a crack just appeared all the way in the top. Is it possible to save it? If so, I was thinking of fitting the tenon, gluing the crack, take out the tenon and have it clamped overnight. I’m not sure if it will work, since the glue is kinda brittle and it may break again when fitting the tenon back for final assembly.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
Spread and Glue the crack then thin your tenon a bit.
If it is not twisted it should fit back after glueing.
I agree with Dean.
You really need to open the crack up a little to ensure you get glue as far down in there as possible. Then clamp up.
Make sure you follow his advice to thin your tenon down before refitting.
Also, keep the clamps on when test fitting the tenon.
Great! Thanks!
I’ve followed your advises, I did a bit of leverage with the tenon fitted to open the crack, fill with glue, get the tenon out and clamp it. The glue squeezed in all of the 4 faces including inside the mortise, so I guess it spread well.
If you have an old extractor hose for your extractor, you can apply glue to one side of the crack and suck it into the crack from the other side. It helps to thin the glue a little first.
Then clamp.
Y nací en Bahia Blanca
Que bueno ver otros argentinos por aca! Un saludo!
Its sounds like you got a good repair with the squeeze-out on all faces. I have found that Titebond-3 is a good glue in these situations – it is quite runny and has a long open time. I prize open the crack as much as I dare and then squeeze in this glue from the top as far as I can, and let gravity pull it down for 5 minutes. This glue will move down several inches in that time, even in tight cracks.
I’ve made a similar mistake on quite a few occasions. My understanding is that joints should be just tight enough that a couple of fist or a light mallet blows will close them up. However I often forget this and resort to acts of barbarianism when the fit is too tight.
Stu - Surrey, UK
One other thing to consider: you can buy craft (blunt) syringes on eBay, I’ve used them for injecting glue into tight spots, which I think could help in your case.
A tip I saw once, which I use regularly, is to apply glue to both sides of a piece of paper, then slide the paper down the crack as far as you can. Clamp up, then when the glue is dry, trim away the excess. This also gives you very minimal squeeze out to clean up. I used this just this week to reattach a plywood face veneer that was coming away from the rest. The piece would have looked terrible if it had broken off, and I had yet to clean up the edges after the coping saw. You can’t see it at all now.
Colin, Czech Rep.
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