Whoops, skipped last week. Sorry about that, folks. It’s been a little hectic, and now that Obamathon is over, we can all breathe a little easier.

Previously in this column I’ve discussed some projects involving wood. Or more specifically, working with pieces of furniture made out of wood. Tabletops, picture frames, those sorts of things. I’m not yet ready to delve into discussing how to actually build furniture out of wood. Perhaps one day we’ll get there… but today ain’t looking good.

Instead, right here, I’m going to start to give some basic tips on working with wood. Maybe you just bought a table at a yard sale, and it’s a bit beat up. Or maybe you bought a couple wooden stools and the legs are falling off. Today I’m going to talk about some basic wood repair… gluing and fixing cracks. Next time, we’ll talk about actually refinishing a piece of wooden furniture.

Wood Repair

Probably the most common types of repairs you will have to do will be loose pieces, cracks, gouges and holes. Most of these are fairly easy to fix, given the right tools.

Here’s a good example of a simple repair, that only requires some wood glue (about $3-4 for a bottle). The other day I brought home some discarded wooden chairs. They weren’t too beat up, but the legs and backs had some spots where the joints were loose. For this repair, all you need is some wood glue and a clamp. You can even probably skip the clamp in this instance, as gravity might be able to do most of the work. Wood glue is a bit messy, but you can clean up with soap and water. You’ll only need a little bit of wood glue to get the job done. For legs on a chair, you might not need to clamp. Put the glue in the hole where the peg is going, and put some weight on the seat to apply some pressure to the joint. For the back of the chair, you would probably want to clamp. If you don’t want to buy a clamp (these can be a little pricey for a good one), you can also get creative and use rope to hold things in place. I once read about someone using pantyhose to hold a chair together. Whatever floats your boat.

These may seem like obvious tips, but you’d be surprised how many people 1) don’t bother to fix that wobbly leg, or 2) do it incorrectly, using something like superglue or a glue gun.

Fixing cracks in wood is a bit more difficult. If you have a crack in the seat of a chair, or in a tabletop, you can repair it using wood filler or water putty. Please note, these repairs are for mostly cosmetic cracks. If the wood is cracked into two pieces, the repair will be more complicated and you may want to consider not bothering. These are for minor cracks.

Wood filler comes in a variety of colors, and you can blend them to try and get a match. Generally these cost around $3-4 for a jar. To apply, make sure the crack clean (no debris), and fill the crack using a putty knife or other blade. The filler will shrink as it dries, so make sure to put enough in there, generally leaving a little mound above the crack. Filler dries fairly quickly, but requires at least a day or two to fully set. Be sure to refer to the directions of the product you are using. After it has set, you can sand the putty down with a fine grit sandpaper and then buff with a very fine grit steel wool (#0000).

Water putty will dry harder, and can be stained using wood stain. It’s about the same price as wood filler. However, it can be difficult to get a match with color. Any time you are filling a crack, be prepared to have it not match, or be prepared to end up refinishing the surface all together. Water putty generally comes as a mix of powder and water, which you then apply with a putty knife just as with the wood filler.

Damn, this is a lot of text, especially for the Friday after inauguration. So bookmark this page, or send it to a friend who is still sitting on a piece of driftwood.

Don’t worry, I’ll backlink to this when I discuss refinishing!