Loose housing
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Well, I finally cut a loose housing (dado). 🙂 What tricks are there for dealing with this? The member being housed is one of a pair of bookmatched elements, so I can’t resort to just remaking a thicker component.
This will come down to shimming, I suppose, but the housing is only 1/8″ deep and the defect is small, no more than 1/32″, probably less.
This is housing an armrest into the rear seat post of a chair, so it will see some load, which makes me not want to use a filler, fearing it will just fall out over time.
Sometimes, repairs look worse than gaps, so I may leave it.
Hej Ed,
Won’t say that I speak with any authority on the subject; but being at best an acceptably mediocre woodworker, there is some gathered experience on it.
If the mating(?) piece hasn’t shoulders, it might be of value to create at least one. Then glue a strip/shim along the created tenon. Finally plane the strip until the piece fits the housing.
If the piece going into the housing is to match something else – another housing, as in a shelf, for instance – then experience has taught me the importance of making sure along which face I make the groove.
My alternative approach is to shim the housing enough to allow a minute rebate/shoulder on the mating piece, shouldn’t there be a pair in beforehand (which there, as a precaution always are). I use wedged strips to press the shims to the side of the housings, and then wait for the glue to cure. Some masking tape on the strips saves them from getting stuck in the dado.
The attached photos show the contraption used for sliding dovetails. Please accept my apologies on them potentially being a tad artistic. For square dadoes I use strips wedged along their length.
The nice thing is that the shoulders hide the shims.
Sven-Olof Jansson
London, UK; Boston, MA
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