I have a set of dining room chairs where the screws won’t stay tight, making the legs wobbly. I’ve even replaced the screws on some of them, because they fell out.
I was thinking of using wood glue in the holes to keep the screws in place, and even considered using gorilla glue.
It’s unlikely that these chairs will need to be disassembled in the future.
Have you tried something like this? Did it work? Thanks.
I would not. The course threads generally speaking do not stand up well to the shifting and moving that daily chairs are subjected. I’d recommend if at all possible, drill through and use a bolt washer and lock nut, nylon or otherwise.
Thank you.
Wood glue makes a lousy gap-filler. I’d wedge wood into the hole then reflux with wood glue. Epoxy would gap-fill but is a one-time fix and would limit future repair options.
Wood or metal chairs? A little glycerin will help with loose joints if it’s all wood.
The chairs are all wood as far as I can tell.
Glycerin? Really? Can you elaborate?
Swells the wood up a bit
Yup, look up a product called Chair Doctor for helping with loose joints. If the screw is stripped in the wood, best choice is to drill and insert and glue in a dowl. Then redrill and thread in a new screw
Thank you. That is a really good idea!
I’ve done this several times with good results.
The reason I mentioned bolts, is if you have, ahem, weight like me, the design of the chair already failed once. I’ll trust steel over wood for holding the joint tight. Otherwise your doing it again in x many years.
I think your idea is a good one, @dougemes. The way these chairs are assembled is a pocket hole with the other hardware hidden. I agree that your solution would be the most permanent, but since I can’t reach the hardware, I may go with the dowel suggestion because it wouldn’t require me disassembling 12 chairs. If I don’t put them back together perfectly, it’s going to upset my family, so in this case, I need it to be “good enough” and not perfect.
If you know of a video or something that shows how this can be done without removing the chair seats, I’m up for learning more. Thanks again, I appreciate the help.
Something I once read (Heloise?) was to coat toothpicks or wooden matchsticks with wood glue and put into the stripped out hole. Once dry, the toothpicks (allegedly) form new/un-damaged wood for the screw grooves to bite into.
Might I suggest a nice wooden golf tee for the same. Works great!
I’ve used Toothpicks before in making repairs in wood for screws.
I’ve used that to fix loose screws on door hinges in the kitchen and for bedroom doors with great success. Toothpicks and Elmer’s wood glue make an excellent combo.
Twigs off of trees work, too.