Need some advice on putting an old table back together

[doobes]

My wife's mother was the queen of furniture scrounges when she was alive.  My in-laws were people of limited means and in the New Orleans area, there was a lot of "discarded" furniture in the day.  Nowadays, most of this stuff would be called antique, but then it was considered trash.

Over the course of many years, she collected quite a bit of the stuff out of dumpsters, ditches, yard sales etc. When my in-laws passed away we "inherited" most of it. Pretty much all of the stuff was made locally and wasn't what I would call high quality.  I've been slowly, but surely working my way through the stuff rehabbing it to decent construction (won't fall apart again) and then refinishing.

Some time back I did this settee:

Reassembled from literally a pile of sticks:

[attachment=6235]

Final product:

[attachment=6236]

Well, anyway, I'm in the middle of another one.  This is a little sofa side table that has a marble top. It is put together with a bunch of dowels and a lot of nails, both square cut and round.

Here is a shot of the thing on my bench after I've disassembled, but put back together (without the nails):

[attachment=6237]

Here is the leg assembly:

[attachment=6238]

And the part(s) in question, the top section:

[attachment=6239]

[attachment=6240]

[attachment=6241]

[attachment=6242]

[attachment=6243]

I'm looking for some advise as to how to put this thing back together.  As you can see, most of it was simply just nailed together. Typically the nails were driven into end grain and glued.

All of the glue joints have failed, probably hide glue, which made disassembly fairly easy.

I'd like to put this thing together in a way that won't come apart again (at least in my lifetime).

Any reco's?

[Gary G™]

Perhaps you can use a router to mortise slots and make your own floating tenons?

[Willyou]

I'm not an experienced restorer, but I have done some similar pieces. As far as methods and techniques, I've pretty much just used my best judgement as well as some info from reading material. So, for what it's worth...

Nice job on the settee.

IMO, I would put the table back together with the same glue. If, as you say, it is hide glue, I think that new hide glue will be more likely to adhere to the old glue which means that your cleanup can be less thorough. Also, hide glue in a tight joint will be plenty strong and the next person that needs to take something apart for repair will thank you for it. If it is a valuable piece of furniture, you might want to consider leaving any existing screws or nails since they are part of the original construction (I assume). Your call.

Where the four legs come together at the center piece, I would consider putting in a third dowel for each leg.

The top component looks like it needs to come totally apart and re-assembled same as the legs. If the corners are nailed, re-assemble with dowels or loose tenons and square up the whole assembly. Likewise for the other components while fixing splits and breaks and maybe replacing some parts to get a better fit. Probably replace or re-glue the corner glue blocks.

The finish doesn't look too bad. Is it shellac? I would consider, rather than stripping, just cleaning it, scuff sanding, and adding a coat or two of what ever the existing finish is. Or, maybe just clean and wax it.

[doobes]

LOML indicates that this table is the "first daughter's" table in that it went to the first daughter of the family, which is why we have it. Evidently it's several generations old and is earmarked for my daughter....

In any event, I wasn't planning on refinishing it. Don't know what the finish is.

May try loose tenons. That would make sense.  I built Gizmozilla to cut all the mortises for the settee. Wouldn't be hard to cut some for this thing. Knowing the heritage, I'm going to study it a bit harder to make certain it gets put together properly.

Thanks

[handi]

Doobes, those pieces look awesome, great stuff even if it is not “artisan quality”. 
I have had occasion to repair some older pieces that were made in less than optimal ways.

If possible, nail holes (in the receiving piece) should be drilled out and plugged with a hardwood dowel which can accept a screw in replacement.

In cases of nails in end grain, a useful technique is to drill across the grain back from the edge and glue a hardwood dowel in. Then a screw can be driven into the side of that dowel and will hold.

Those two techniques should get you most of the way through.

[John Mihich]

I do a lot of repair/refinishing.  When I reglue it's either epoxy or poly glue when it comes to joints.  Screws instead of nails.  

I have drilled out old dowels and used the next size up. This cleans up all the old glue and gives a tight fit.  Same thing with screws - upsize to the next size.  

There is nothing wrong with using new glues unless you are doing a priceless item - then go as much as original as possible.  Same thing with finishes.  I try to use the same finish that was on the piece.

[doobes]

It's still sitting on the bench tormenting me 


Most likely, I'll fill all the dowel holes and then machine some pockets for loose tenons.  That served me well for the settee.  The butt joints on the top frame will be more of a challenge.

No, I'm not gonna nail it back together.... I did find one of these in one of the corner blocks:



The settee had a slew of them, all driven in across the grain... 


Would love to smack the marroon that did that.

[doobes]

Does anyone see the image posted above? It displays in the preview, but I don't see it.... 


I love the new software, it works SO well

[Phil S.]

Does anyone see the image posted above? It displays in the preview, but I don't see it.... 


I love the new software, it works SO well

The corrugated fastener - yup, I can see it.

Phil

[doobes]

The corrugated fastener - yup, I can see it.

Phil

H'mmm.  Wonder why I don't....