Evening star., 1937-10-05
Rope 7ourniSuct ;n place

| gain their former place in the house
hold by simple and inexpensive oper-
alton in your own home with glue.
Liquid glue is useful for small opera
tions, as it is ready to use and always
at hand. For important operations
stick glue is better. Though it must
be dissolved in water and applied while
hot, it has great strength. A glue
in powder form may be mixed and
smoothed with water and applied cold
1t is always at hand, and the manu-
facturers claim that once it has dried
the wood itself will break before the
glued joint will separate. All Of these
products carry instructions for use on
the package.
1t is absolutely necessary for success
to have some method of applying
pressure. Never attempt to glue oily,
painted or vanished surfaces, or the
end grain of wood. Always wipe off
Immediately all surplus glue, as once
it has hardened it is almost impossible
to remove. For a perfect glue job"
have dry. clean wood. plenty of glue,
and some method of eXerting pressure
on the glued area.
IN ATTEMPTING to tighten the
joints on rickety chair a good
method is to "rock" glue into the
joints. Where this is truly home
method, and frowned on by the experts,
it is useful because it is not necessary
to take the chair apart, and all the
surfaces and doWel pins remain in
place. After the glue is prepared it is
worked plentifully into all the joints by
rocking the rung or slat back and forth
in its socket. After this process is
complete and each loose joint is gen.
erously supplied with glue, set the
chair or table on a surface that you
know is perfectly fiat (an old marble
table top is fine for this purpose). 1t
is necessary to get pressure in the
right places so that all the joints pull
up tight and the chair is not warped
or contorted. If you have plenty of
equipment you will have long clamps
for this purpose-but if you are using
the home method you might use a
rope tourniquet. This is a length of
soft cotton rope which is tied loosely
around the parts of the chair to be
drawn up. A piece of wood or old chair
rung is inserted in the slack rope and
tWlsted-being careful to exert uni
form pressure until all the joints are
brought up tight. This is similar to
tourniquet used in first aid treatment
of the human injured. Set the chair
on the old marble table top or other
fiat surface. wipe off all surplus glue,
tighten the tourniquet, wipe of any
glue that may exude from the tight
joint, and leave it to dry.
Veneered furniture that is badly
Clipped or warped is not worth the
difficult task of restoration unless it
is a rare piece, or something that you
wish to keep for sentimental reasons.
Strips of veneer may be purchased in
the shops or may be salvaged from
bits OF old furniture. In laying in
patches OF veneer it is necessary that
they be of the same thickness as the
original piece. Old furniture had
much heavier veneer than the later
pieces, and modern veneer is very thin.
After all the old glue is scraped of
the surface and you are sure that it
is clean and dry, cut the patch of
veneer the same shape and size as
the cavity to be filled Cover the
patch carefully with glue and puddle
glue carefully into the edge of the
cavity; set the patch In place, wipe
of all glue which oozes to the sur
face and hold hot flatiron over the
patch for q few minutes so that it
will dry quickly and thoroughly.
X X
IF AT any time you must use screws
or nails-and 1t u wise to avoid
their use ~ much ~ possible hole