Campana Woodworking
Established 1978

Providing Repair and Custom-Built Furniture For Elburn, Geneva, Batavia and St. Charles, IL

 

An Extensive Repair of An Office Swivel Chair With Cane Seat and Back

This chair was brought to me in the condition you see. There were broken parts- too many to list- and the swivel was broken also. All the client asked was to take pictures for her archives.

Here you see the entire chair organized and sorted for inspection. 

First up on the repair list was the front rail. Making sure all the pieces were present and they fit well together was important to use it for a template for the new front rail which needed to be fabricated. Gluing the broken parts together would not have given a lasting product. But, gluing them together for a template worked quite well.

Over the years, I have noticed that this particular part in a cane seat will fail. The problem was that the holes bored for the cane gave out and a break line ran from hole to hole.

In order to avoid this problem, I glue three pieces of oak together. Two pieces running in a left to right direction and a third sandwiched in between in a front to back direction. Problem solved. Look closely and you will recognize all three pieces.

Ok. The laminated blank glue is set and the old broken rail is screwed to the blank for cutting to shape, boring for dowels and more operations.

The new rail is complete and compared to the old rail placed below. Notice that the new part is heavier (more robust) than the old for greater strength. But is only heavier in certain dimensions that will not have bearing on the fit to the old usable pieces of the chair.

Here the seat bow is placed upside-down showing where the edge was broken and a new piece spliced-in. Notice the white wood is the new part.

In this view, the seat bow is positioned rightside up. The wooden splice on the end is shown ready for final shaping, doweling and the edge to be cut at the 4 degree angle to fit the new front rail snuggly. 

I admit, this view is difficult to understand at first. It will become more clear upon viewing the next couple pictures.

What you see is the end of the break of the middle bow that runs into the arm. The upper part of the chair back is shown behind. 

Here the top bow break has been cleaned and recut. Note the bow is upside down in this view.

The arm and middle bow are joined. The splice is set. Notice the step shoulder on the top of the inserted piece. (It is for strength.) Much work on this joint. Much joy that this part is complete.

This picture shows the one-piece tenon (the round part on bottom of the piece) and spline (the flat rectangular part) fabricated to fasten the arm of the chair to the seat front rail. The spline will be slipped into the cut you see on the arm. The next photograph will show the spline in the arm.

Here you see how the break in the arm\seat will be repaired with one piece of wood. The round part fits into the seat rail.

The spline and tenon worked. Yay! All we need now is to clean the epoxy and shape the wood back.

Finish is touched up and chair attached to the repaired swivel. All we need now is for the cane to be put in the seat. Off to the cane shop.

A beautiful cane job! Weaving is an art few can do.

Look below for another view of this chair. Thanks for traveling through this project.

Always worth the effort.