This German-made solid beech piece came in as a table repair job not long ago. and it ended up being quite the project! The top had huge cracks in it that were only being held together by the subtop and 3 of the 4 legs had broken off entirely. Not to mention, even those legs had been repaired by someone at some point. Before I get into how it was fixed, I want to talk about why this designed failed in the first place.

Design Flaws

The biggest design flaw with this piece is that it looks like a stool and so very likely was originally broken by somone looking to unburden themselves. Beyond that, the legs do not have any support close to the bottom and are constructed using 3 separate butt joints (butt joints being inherently weak due to end grain gluing issues). Because the uppermost joints are at the peak of the curve in the legs, any downward pressure spreads the legs and puts tremendous force at that point–no wonder they broke. Also, the joints in the legs used splines to connect the butt joints, which would be great except the splines were only cut 1/8″ into either member which is just not enough.

When they broke the first time, whoever fixed them used dowels to replace the splines: great! Except they were cut too loose and not centered correctly so the wood didn’t line up nice and the joints were weak. Plus, an expanding foam glue was used which is just not the strongest way to repair wood, especially if the joint is loose. Of course, the three doweled joints were bound to break again.

The top cracking as it did is the result of an interesting design choice too. The solid wood top was hard glued to a thick plywood subtop and this is a problem because of wood expansion. In the winter when the environment in the house is cold and dry, wood wants to shrink. Come summer time, the solid wood wants to expand in the heat and moisture. Plywood has alternating grain and strong glues that make it very dimensionally stable, so while the solid wood is contracting, the subtop is not. Instead of breaking the super strong wood glue, the wood breaks itself apart: hence, the prominent cracks.

Table Repair: Top

The first step to this table repair was to remove the subtop. The only way to do that is to carefully pry and hammer it off. Once off, the top could be cleaned up, biscuited and glued back together with clamping cauls to handle the round shape. I was able to fill in any small gaps with repair compounds and recoat the top after scuffing the surface to allow the polyurethane finish to mechanically bond.

Now, to make sure that the same issue didn’t reoccur, I cut a new subtop and stained and finished it, then connected it to the top with wooden clips that allow for the wood to expand and contract. Next, the legs.

Table Repair: Legs

I used a heat gun to gently loosen the hard glue holding the one good leg together, then used the table saw and some finicky jigs to cut deeper splines into the leg joints. Glued and let them set for this table repair, but they didn’t seem strong enough, so I mortised a section across the joint and cut a tenon to keep the joints together in the opposite direction as well. These stiffened them up considerably but still the alignment between the upper and lower section wasn’t perfect, so I sanded and recoated the legs with polyurethane as well.

Conclusion, Videos and Links

It would be impossible to completely correct this piece without cosmetic and design changes, but I tried to maintain the piece as it came to me as much as I possibly could. Ultimately, it was repaired not for its utility, but for its beauty and sentimental value, so I was happy to do everything I could bring it back to a useful state.

Lots more repairs over at my Wood Repair page, and contact me at woodasnew.ca@gmail.com or call/text 705-471-2439 to see about having your furniture and wood products repaired.

Check out the full video and short of the repair below: