The legs and feet of
furniture pieces
-- especially heavy cabinets, dressers, and bookcases -- are
subjected
to both weight and lateral stress when they're moved. Pushing a
heavily
loaded piece of furniture can cause problems even if it doesn't
cause
immediate breakage, and these problems are very common in old
pieces.
Structural breaks should be repaired.
Loose
Casters
A caster is secured by a metal
rod
driven into a hole drilled in the bottom of the leg. When the
piece of
furniture is moved, stress on the caster rod can damage the wood
around
it, enlarging the hole and loosening the caster. If the damage
isn't
too bad, the casters may just be loose. If the problem has been
ignored
too long, the casters may fall out when the piece is lifted or
the ends
of the legs may be split. Both problems can be solved.
To tighten loose casters,
metal
or plastic caster sleeve inserts are used, which are available
in
several sizes. the loose caster is removed, the insert is
then
tapped into the hole in the leg. No adhesive is needed. The
sleeve
should fit snugly; if it doesn't, larger inserts are used. When
the
caster is pushed into the sleeve, this should solve the problem.
If the leg is split, all the
casters
on the piece are removed, glue applied along the split and the
glued
edges pushed firmly together and the excess glue wiped off. To
reinforce the break,we bind the split with several wraps of fine
black
steel wire. On many pieces of furniture there is a ridge or a
crevice
at the caster point; if the wire is wrapped around the leg at
this
point, the repair will not be obvious. If the leg doesn't have
any
carving or decoration at this point, the wood can be notched all
the
way around with a triangular file, and the wire wrapped in the
notch.
All legs are treated the same way so that they match.
One
Leg Shorter Than the Rest
When one leg on wooden furniture
is
shorter than the rest, it may be tempting to cut the other legs
down to
match the shorter one. Don't do it. Instead, have the short leg
built
up to match the others. Cutting usually results in serious
mismatching,
besides shortening the piece and ruining its design.
If the leg is only a little too
short, a metal leg acn be used cap to build it up. These caps,
made in
several sizes, have from one to three prongs on a metal base. To
install a cap, the prongs are hammered in carefully so wood
dosnt
split, the cap is centered on the leg and lightly tapped
to mark
the prong positions. Then tiny holes are drilled to accept the
prongs.
If a metal cap doesn't work,
a wood
extender may be added to the leg. The extender is cut from the
same
wood as the piece of furniture, if possible; shaped it to match.
The
extender is fitted exactly, and then glued and nailed to the
bottom of
the short leg; the nails countersunk. The whole piece will
probrably
need to be refinished to blend the extender with the rest of the
wood.
If the gap is really wide,
the leg
and the extender can be V-notched and the parts glued together,
forming
an A-shaped brace. This is a very strong repair and will give
the piece
a real handmade look, so it is sometimes preferable to not to
have the
match the wood exactly. The joint is assembled with glue and
countersunk small nails. The nails are driven where they won't
show,
and the holes filled with wood filler. Even if the holes are
visible,
it won't look bad.
LOCATION
