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I've been making a desk top from a larger beech (I think) table top. This table top is formed of strips/staves of wood glued together. The strips are full length. I've essentially resized and refinished the edges of the top to make it suitable for a desk. However, at one end the strips have come apart (just one pair). The split is pretty much in the middle and the strips are just loose. They haven't bowed away from each other. I'm wondering how to fix this.
Is there a method of getting glue into a small split? I don't want to open it up too much in case it splits further. I wondered if I could put a clamp across further down, then try and open it up a bit, hoping the clamp would prevent further splitting.
For a £5 charity donation I was allowed to walk out of Boots with a needle and syringe intended for a drug user needle swap programme. The problem I was sorting was a bubble in a veneer. I lanced the boil so to speak and injected it was a quality PVA. You might be able to get enough glue in by just wiping in from the surface or the needle trick might help to get it deeper. Then clamp.
My main concern would be if its split ones, stopping it doing it again elsewhere.
There were more splits in the same end but my resizing trimmed these off. My guess is the table top was stored on end and the end with splits was closest to the ground so got damp.... or when it was used as a table it was butted up against a radiator.
Lie the table upside down, drill into the crack (effectively from underneath) to give access then apply glue and clamp.
??
If it's split all the way through you can vacuum glue through (with a shop vac, not your best Dyson). Few vids on Youtube.
This is what you need. Low viscosity to penetrate slim gaps better than normal wood glue, several different diameter needles for various jobs and it sticks like s##t to a blanket. I use it on old dining room chairs and I've never had to do it twice.
Edit: It seems like my link isn't working, just search for Veritas Chair Doctor.
I've used a plastic straw to get pva into a crack.
flatten one end, poke flat end into crack, squeeze glue through the flat end into the crack.
You can get small syringe things out the chemist, but not the needles. Seem to remember they're either free or under a quid. The type of size you use for scooshing medicine into kids mouths.
Remember if you are using pva and you fill it up, as it dries it will retract slightly and leave a bit of an indent. So you might have to do it twice.
If you have a router, and the table top is thick enough you can get worktop connecting bolts - the sort you use to connect kitchen worktops together.
You can get needles from online chemists. I used Medbasic but there are tonnes of sites.
A photo would be useful but, potentially I wouldn't try and force a split back together.
Has it split on a glue line or the grain?
Split on the glue line and you're unlikely to be able to clean off the old glue well enough to get a good bond.
Forcing it back together might potentially not last long and it may split again or split somewhere else even.
A better approach may be to create little slivers of wood from your offcuts and glue them into the crack then flush them back.
That way, you're not putting stress back into it but allowing it to 'relax'.
Another option is to let in a dovetail key and make something of it. 👍
Edit-Get a photo on and we can see what you're talking about better.
I may have misunderstood what you meant looking back.
I've seen people do the same as kayaks dovetail with domino and handmade domino biscuits or whatever they are called. Might not be as effective, bit a hell of a lot faster.
If you want a change for the , lets just say long often done to death dovetail key thingies, cut a shaped recess and pour in melted pewter. As long as you keep the same type of shape as the dovetail or approximately, to enable a mechanical strength.
Brass also looks good for dovetail keys.
Thanks all, lots to think about.
Has it split on a glue line or the grain
On a glue line between the strips. Not really much to show in a photo it's a hairline split hardly visible but enough that you can push the strips slightly apart up and downwards. It's somewhere in the middle there. Can't remember exactly where...
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Drill a small hole at the end of the split. This should stop it splitting further. Then with a thin wedge, open up the crack, apply some Pva and wiggling the wedge, push it into the crack as you open and close it. When you’ve got as much in as poss (a sheet of paper can help get glue in also), cramp the table tightly for 24 hrs.
You can buy syringes with large-bore needles for filling printer cartridges, I bought some for refilling fountain pen cartridges, they’d be ideal for squirting PVA glue down into the cracks. Then you need several of those steel clamps that will stretch across the board and can be tightened up to close the cracks under pressure. Wipe the excess off, sand surface.
Or make up some butterfly keys like the ones in Kayak23’s photo above. Alternatively, you can fill the cracks with coloured resin, and make a feature of it.
Here’s the syringes and needles that ought to work for PVA glue, just fill with water afterwards and squirt through several times.
If the split is pretty straight and doesnt deviate too far one way or the other, you can run a circular saw through it the saw kerf taking out the damaged area leaving two straight sides you then glue back together..
Basically you cut it in half then join it back.
As above, the old glue in the joint will prevent you getting a decent fix. I quite like the sound of the dyna-ti method of slicing it in two and re making the join - assuming of course you’ve got plenty clamps and a track saw
Alternatively quick and dirty - route out the underside and inset worktop bolts and torque it back up.
If you cut it along the line of the split, hoping to get 2 nice straight edges to glue back together, I suspect that you'll end up with 2 nice curved edges that will need a lot of trimming to get back straight.
Dynati is saying only do one cut, following the crack. You then have two edges that perfectly match, which can be stuck together.
I'd probably try glue and clamp in the first instance. If that doesn't work then glue and dog bone. If that doesn't work then dynatis suggestion and biscuit joint it.
Edit: BIL fixed a door for us that had split where the hinges screw in after one of the kids have it a massive yank. Basically some glue that is charged electricaly to hear it up and activate it. Still going strong 5 years later. He does build furniture for a living but if you have a local cabinet maker they may be able to sort it for you.
@convert intrigued by this. I could get use of a Domino...
I’ve seen people do the same as kayaks dovetail with domino and handmade domino biscuits or whatever they are called. Might not be as effective, bit a hell of a lot faster.
Not sure what you mean by handmade domino biscuits, but two dominos going oppositely diagonally across the split might work? (in a V shape, not X)
I have a track saw and a router, I could cut it all the way across and rejoin but that seems a bit drastic.