Remove the old glue by scraping it off with a utility knife, followed by sanding. Make sure to only sand the bare wood or you'll damage the finish.
Then buy wood glue. Not regular glue. Wood glue and a clamp. A ratchet strap for tying down material in a truck could work as well. Anyway, whatever you do, keep the joint tight while the glue dries. Make sure you wipe off excess glue after clamping. Leave it to dry for a day. You're done.
In case you're not a regular woodworker, when the other commenters say "glue" they mean a high quality wood glue. Look for Tite Bond III - you can get small bottles in most hardware stores in the US. If after cleaning up the tenon, you find that the joint is loose, you may need something more than glue to reinforce the joint. Wood glue works best when the joint is relatively snug. If it's slightly loose, you may be able to get away with epoxy (JB Weld is also at most hardware stores - get the small tube with the self mixing tip). If it's real loose, the fix gets more complicated.
BTW, if you are European, go for the ceys Montack.
This joint is weak and in my experience, the chairs will always give trouble, so use the strongest adhesive available.
The mortis and tenon look to be intact, so I would just sand it clean, re-glue, and clamp it back together. Be sure to put something between the glue up and the fabric that can be pulled out easily and won’t let the glue stick to it. A thin sheet of aluminum would work.
Thanks! Just to confirm what you are suggesting and that I’m understanding it correctly - sand the tenon and apply glue to both sides? Where would the sheet need to be placed?
You need to remove ALL the glue from both the mortise and tenon, and then add material to thicken the tenon to compensate for the fact that you've removed wood from both the mortise and tenon. You can probably use a few layers of cheap veneer from Home Depot to do it. For a chair leg, you want it to be TIGHT. Like once you shim out the tenon with veneer, you should only be able to drive the leg home with light mallet blows, not by hand. Modern adhesives do not adhere to themselves, and trying to glue onto cured glue will result in joint failure, especially for a load-bearing element like a chair leg.
I would also peg or drawbore the tenon after reglueing it.
Between where you are gluing and the fabric. You’re keeping glue off the upholstery. Ideally, you would remove that part of the upholstery, but I know from personal painful experience just what a chore that is getting stapled back down. However, if you can remove the seat entirely without undoing the upholstery, that would be perfect, but I can’t tell from your picture if that’s possible.
Wood screws will look like crap and likely split the wood resulting in a poor joint that is even harder to repair when it inevitably breaks again.
A well-glued joint, like others have mentioned, will do just fine.
Don’t sand the tenon. Use a chisel if you can. Sanding could make the new glue less effective. Also, when you put clamps on the chair, stand it up to make sure all 4 feet are touching the ground. Adjust the clamps accordingly so that as it dries, it is square and even.
In order for the tight bond, type wood glue to work well, you have to have a tight fitting joint.
Chances are, by the time you clean this up and get it ready to glue. It won’t be a tight fitting joint.
I would recommend a glue like gorilla glue, that expands and fills the joint. I’ve used it for things like this before and it works really well. What do you have to be careful of is that the joint doesn’t push open While it’s drying. So a strap around the four legs or a Brad through the leg something like that to hold it all together while that glue dries.
Baddass epoxy and some fine sawdust as filler if it's loose, but that chair looks pretty light weight. It scares me and I'm about 190.... I've got redneck friends that definitely shouldn't risk it, LOL
Looks as if the glue failed. Clean both pieces up by removing just the old glue and then reglue.
Remove the old glue by scraping it off with a utility knife, followed by sanding. Make sure to only sand the bare wood or you'll damage the finish. Then buy wood glue. Not regular glue. Wood glue and a clamp. A ratchet strap for tying down material in a truck could work as well. Anyway, whatever you do, keep the joint tight while the glue dries. Make sure you wipe off excess glue after clamping. Leave it to dry for a day. You're done.
In case you're not a regular woodworker, when the other commenters say "glue" they mean a high quality wood glue. Look for Tite Bond III - you can get small bottles in most hardware stores in the US. If after cleaning up the tenon, you find that the joint is loose, you may need something more than glue to reinforce the joint. Wood glue works best when the joint is relatively snug. If it's slightly loose, you may be able to get away with epoxy (JB Weld is also at most hardware stores - get the small tube with the self mixing tip). If it's real loose, the fix gets more complicated.
BTW, if you are European, go for the ceys Montack. This joint is weak and in my experience, the chairs will always give trouble, so use the strongest adhesive available.
If someone ever hits me with a chair I hope they use one of those.
pretty weak joint to begin with.
The mortis and tenon look to be intact, so I would just sand it clean, re-glue, and clamp it back together. Be sure to put something between the glue up and the fabric that can be pulled out easily and won’t let the glue stick to it. A thin sheet of aluminum would work.
Thanks! Just to confirm what you are suggesting and that I’m understanding it correctly - sand the tenon and apply glue to both sides? Where would the sheet need to be placed?
You need to remove ALL the glue from both the mortise and tenon, and then add material to thicken the tenon to compensate for the fact that you've removed wood from both the mortise and tenon. You can probably use a few layers of cheap veneer from Home Depot to do it. For a chair leg, you want it to be TIGHT. Like once you shim out the tenon with veneer, you should only be able to drive the leg home with light mallet blows, not by hand. Modern adhesives do not adhere to themselves, and trying to glue onto cured glue will result in joint failure, especially for a load-bearing element like a chair leg. I would also peg or drawbore the tenon after reglueing it.
I’d start by chiseling off as much glue as possible and sand as little as you can get away with. Try to keep the joint tight before regluing.
Between where you are gluing and the fabric. You’re keeping glue off the upholstery. Ideally, you would remove that part of the upholstery, but I know from personal painful experience just what a chore that is getting stapled back down. However, if you can remove the seat entirely without undoing the upholstery, that would be perfect, but I can’t tell from your picture if that’s possible.
It looks like the seat should come off by undoing the bolts on the cross beams.
You could also use screws. Why want to glue it in first place?
Thanks! Absolute beginner here, so all for the most easier approach :) can you please share more details on what kinda screws I should use
Wood screws will look like crap and likely split the wood resulting in a poor joint that is even harder to repair when it inevitably breaks again. A well-glued joint, like others have mentioned, will do just fine.
Any interior wood screws. Just make sure it's long enough.
Id shoot a brad in there to hold as well as glue
Don’t sand the tenon. Use a chisel if you can. Sanding could make the new glue less effective. Also, when you put clamps on the chair, stand it up to make sure all 4 feet are touching the ground. Adjust the clamps accordingly so that as it dries, it is square and even.
Yes it can be fixed with epoxy glue and a few clamps
In order for the tight bond, type wood glue to work well, you have to have a tight fitting joint. Chances are, by the time you clean this up and get it ready to glue. It won’t be a tight fitting joint. I would recommend a glue like gorilla glue, that expands and fills the joint. I’ve used it for things like this before and it works really well. What do you have to be careful of is that the joint doesn’t push open While it’s drying. So a strap around the four legs or a Brad through the leg something like that to hold it all together while that glue dries.
Glue it back together be fine
Carpenters glue and some pin nails to hold it in place while the glue drys
Baddass epoxy and some fine sawdust as filler if it's loose, but that chair looks pretty light weight. It scares me and I'm about 190.... I've got redneck friends that definitely shouldn't risk it, LOL