That old dresser I tried to 'fix' just gave up on me

My grandmother's dresser from the 70s finally split a drawer joint last weekend when I was moving it across the room. I ended up using some wood glue and clamps to hold it together, but it got me wondering how people used to patch up furniture before all these modern adhesives existed. Has anyone here had luck with old school methods like dowels or biscuits on particle board?

3 comments

3 Comments

avery_fox9328d ago

Hah, good luck with particle board. That stuff is basically compressed sawdust and lies. Might as well try to glue a cracker back together.

charles_kim28d ago

I've had decent luck with biscuits on old particle board furniture from the 80s, but you gotta reinforce the joint with some thin metal brackets underneath. Drill pilot holes first or the board will crumble on you. For that split drawer, I'd cut a couple shallow grooves across the break and glue in some hardwood veneer strips before clamping. The real trick is cleaning all the old glue off with acetone first, otherwise nothing sticks right.

riley_ramirez8125d ago

oh man, that acetone thing is key but nobody talks about it. i remember trying to fix up this old desk my aunt gave me, particle board of course, and i just slapped glue on the old dried up stuff and clamped it. popped right apart the next day. acetone really does make it stick. speaking of desks, i had this one where the drawer front was totally busted, like the whole face came off the box. i tried that veneer strip trick but i cut the grooves too deep with my dremel and just made a bigger mess. ended up using a bunch of those little corner brackets on the inside and just painted over the crack on the front. looked terrible but hey, it held my tax returns for like three years.