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Repairing an old wooden stepladder

29/11/2017

Good old quality craftsmanship. Sometimes you just don't realize that you are relying on the skills of a woodworker / carpenter / maker from decades ago. When you used an old stepladder happily for years it doesn't come to mind that at some day even the product of decent carpentry will break down. The good thing about older tools and furniture (called vintage nowadays), is that it is absolutely rewarding to repair them. (unlike the plastic mass produced stuff) This is an example of just a simple old wooden stepladder.

After years of carrying heavy loads, folding up thousands of times. this little stepladder's steel rod widened the hole were it was pivoting in. In the end it came out. A simple repair that could be done different ways.

The first idea was to take of the steel rod and replace it with a longer threaded rod, drilled thru the sides and kept in place with 2 nuts on the outside. Yes, it would have made it very sturdy, but it would also change the looks.

The second option was to just fill make the hole bigger, fill it with a wooden plug and drill the same 13 mm hole again at the same spot. The trouble however in the first place was probably the just 1 cm dept of the hole.

So I decided to go for the third option, putting to little external blocks on the inside of the stepladder's legs. To protect the wood I felt it would be a good option to put a few copper pieces of pipe inside the wood so the steel bar would pivot in those.

It turned out a good solution. The rod goes 2 cm deeper in to the holes on both sides which makes it a sturdy connection After a coat of paint this repair won't have changed much to the looks, and this little stepladder will be a safe device for many years to come, for instance to put the Christmas decorations up!

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Repairing an old chair.. the friendly way.

2/11/2017

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Just a wobbly old chair, well maybe not just. There was a crack that went thru to one of the back legs with all consequences of... falling apart. It was just a matter of a little brace, some dowels and some glue... Here's the process of repairing an antique chair without making it look like a new one.

The crack in the seat at one of the rear legs. Taking all apart without damaging the parts.

Chiseling out the place for the bracket (mahogany) gluing in, drilling holes and some reinforcement with dowels. Planing the bracket but leaving it just a millimeter proud of the surface, a repair to an antique chair should look like it's been done sometime ago.

The back was lose to, 2 10 mm beech dowels were hammered in all the way thru the tenons of the back. The three insite thinner parts of the back got the same treatment, only with 8 mm dowels.

The legs were cut 1 mm shorter, so the fitting became tighter. It's great to find that a little Japanese pull saw is capable to cut slices of 1 mm. You can't use to much glue if there's room for it to squeeze out of the joint.

The oak legs were put back into the cherry wood seat. It's up to the owner of the chair whether to leave the repair visible or not.

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Repairing an old wooden stepladder

Repairing an old chair.. the friendly way.

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