Posted: 10/4/2025 10:42:16 AM EDT
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Ok folks, this thing is kind of a toddlers chair, but mimics a Hi-chair without the tray. Basically used for toddlers to sit at a dining/kitchen table. Well it has been in her family forever and now she wants to use it for our granddaughter. Problem is where the seat attaches to the legs. The seat attaches to the base by 4 screws. The holes over the years have worn out. When it would come loose her father would just try the next size up screw. This would just bore out the holes bigger and bigger. Basically the old fashioned, just fix it quick and be done with it. So he would grab a coffee can filled with miscellaneous screws and just make it work with brute force. Now myself as amateur at this want to fix it properly. What do you recommend for repair. I was thinking, drill out the holes and glue in a dowel. Then pre drill new holes and use screws to attach seat to base. The chair in question... Attached File Attached File Attached File |
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Don't do bushings. They'll pull out. Buy a wooden dowel just larger than the hole. Drill the holes out to the dowel diameter or just under. Wood glue and hammer the dowel into the hole. Cut flush. Redrill a new hole and screw it back together. |
Adjectives: smart/handsome/modest
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Originally Posted By ARHank: Don't do bushings. They'll pull out. Buy a wooden dowel just larger than the hole. Drill the holes out to the dowel diameter or just under. Wood glue and hammer the dowel into the hole. Cut flush. Redrill a new hole and screw it back together. If properly installed, they won't. The ones I used on my mom's kitchen chairs have been in place for 5 years. Proper installation means drilling the correct size pilot hole and adding a bit of glue to the threads of the bushing. |
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Originally Posted By ARHank: Don't do bushings. They'll pull out. Buy a wooden dowel just larger than the hole. Drill the holes out to the dowel diameter or just under. Wood glue and hammer the dowel into the hole. Cut flush. Redrill a new hole and screw it back together. Simplest and mostly inexpensive solution . So what if you need to buy a Forster bit? Never a bad thing having to buy some new tool stuff. And no worries about getting the exact dead on alignment of the threaded inserts. |
| The thing with a dowel is that you're screwing into end grain still and that isn't ideal. It will work, and probably for as long as your granddaughter will use the chair. Using threaded inserts is probably better, and I would epoxy them into the holes to ensure they don't come out. Loctite is not a bad idea for the machine screws going into the bushings. Clean all the metal with a suitable solvent before installation. Neither method is really any more work than the other. |
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I picked up the items needed to do either way. Will message with it this weekend, life has been busy. Just needs to be done for Thanksgiving, so I have some time. Picked up a dowel and wood glue, the thread in bushings with 1/4-20 inner threads, machine screws, flat and lock washers, fresh bottle if glue. |