# questions on how to use wood dowell pins



## c2damofoj (Jan 26, 2011)

i have a chair that has been in my family for a very long time, it is a simple rocking chair, I stripped the finish off, disassembled and sanded every piece of the chair. the chair is held together primarily by wooden dowell pins. 2 of them broke during disassembly. im wanting someone to give me a rundown of re assembaling a chair held together by dowell pins. should i drill out all of the old pins, or use the ones that arent broken, also what is the usual procedure for gluing the pieces back together. any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## mdntrdr (Dec 22, 2009)

Drill and replace any broken dowels, glue and clamp. :smile:


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## Texas Sawduster (Apr 27, 2009)

*Ditto*

I second mdntrdr.

Titebond 2 or 3 and drill out the broken dowels, glue and clamp.


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## c2damofoj (Jan 26, 2011)

im assuming titebond would be the glue. would elmers wood glue work? i have a lot of it but if titebond would be better i will definatly get some. the dowells that are broken are 3/4" diameter. am i correct in assuming i need to use the same size bit, or a fraction smaller to ensure a tight fit. also how long do i need to leave everything clamped together after glue??


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## mdntrdr (Dec 22, 2009)

Elmers will work fine.

Drill your hole for a just snug fit to allow some room for glue.

Leave clamped over night. :smile:


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## TGRANT (Jan 25, 2011)

Something to consider. It might not be the case in your chair, but it could have happened. The wood fibers of dowels can suffer permanent compression damage over the years due to multiple expansion and contraction cycles with heat and humidity changes, along with the usual abuses chairs take. If you re-use the unbroken dowels they might not hold. There is no way that I know of to tell if that happened, but since you probably already put a lot of work into the restoration, you might consider replacing all the dowels with new ones. The above reason is also why old chairs (and sometimes new ones) made with dowels sometimes fall apart. Depending on your skill level and how much time you want to spend, you might even consider replacing the dowles with a floating mortise and tenon (where practicable) when you reassemble the chair.


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