Wood filler.

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conny

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I've heard mention on here about a filler you can use to replace rotted timber and it sets harder than the original.
I don't have rotted timber, but I do have a chair back which has splintered and a piece, (roughly 2" x 3"), break off and gone missing.
Does anyone have recommendations for the replacement filler I could use? It's at the end of the timber and forms part of the socket for a domino piece.
Everything will be painted once finished. The timber seems to be pine.
 
Filler isn't timber and has almost no structural strength, so you can't use filler as though it were timber. Filler is only used for aesthetic repairs, e.g.on rotted window sills. You really need to make a replacement piece from new timber and fit that to replace the broken original, although in some instances it is possible to splice-in a timber repair piece and reshape that as required. Even that can depend on how strong the repair needs to be
 
This one is new to me, but I'll be making some repairs soon, so will be testing it probably next week.

Toupret Wood filler

For rotten wood, splicing, filling etc this companies range looks good, I've seen the stuff used recently and the repair looked very good.
It's not cheap though £40 tube and unless you get the tube with both parts pre-loaded, you need their double piston gun... again, adding to cost.

Repair Care
 
Toupret is good stuff! But not structural
 
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Sorry Diver, forgot it needs to be structurally safe for when someone leans back against it.
Thanks Big All and, as usual, JAK hits the nail on the head. Looks like I will have to try and make a replacement rest.
Biggest pain is it is curved slightly. Thinking cap on tonight and look through some books.
 
This is the chair and back rest. As well as the back rest curving up in the middle it is also bowed back slightly.
I don't think you can see the bow out from this picture, I'll try to get another shot tomorrow. If you look at the ends you can see they are slightly raised up from the table top, (being stripped back to bare wood).
 

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The shape is simple enough to copy - plywood template, rough saw slightly oversize then template route (which you should be getting quite expert at by now (y) )

Getting the curve into the back is a bit more difficult - it is often done on a bandsaw then sanded out (steam bending or soaking it in water is not going to work on softwood)

An alternative might be to take the existing item plane the damaged ends flat, glue and cramp straight-grained oversize repair pieces on each end and once the glue has set "carve" them to the required shape (bandsaw, Surforms - thete is actually a vompass sole Surform, wood rasps, block plane, spokeshave, belt sander, etc). If these I reckon a flat sole spokeshave and a compass sole spokeshave might be the best tools fogr the roughing. The sockets at the ends can be chopped out by drilling then finishing with hand chisels
 
Here are two views of it in place on one of the carver chairs.
I've got a piece of R/S 3" x 3" and I've pencilled in the shape on two faces so I can see the top view on one and the face view on the other.
My initial plan is to bandsaw out the upper and lower curves, (ending up with a humpback bridge sort of shape), then bandsaw out the front/back curve. By doing it this way I should be able to sit the original on the hump and get a fairly accurate shape of the back curve. Then a case of roughing to near size with surforms, linishing belt sander etc and hand sanding. The end sockets, as you say, can be formed with drilling and chiselling out followed by some 'loose' tenons glued in place.

As anaside, just been looking at domino jointers and can only find Festool one. Don't any other manufacturers like Makita, DeWalt etc sell them? Can get biscuit jointers galore but not domino jointers.
 

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conny said:
My initial plan is to bandsaw out the upper and lower curves, (ending up with a humpback bridge sort of shape), then bandsaw out the front/back curve. By doing it this way I should be able to sit the original on the hump and get a fairly accurate shape of the back curve
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Yes, that's the best way - if you have a bandsaw. A couple of dobs of hot melt glue should hold it together when you are make the second pair of cuts. TBH you would be better off marking out the end flats, which will be at an angle to the front if the timber, and sawing them first, then chopping out the mortises (drilling and chiselling)

conny said:
Then a case of roughing to near size with surforms, linishing belt sander etc and hand sanding.
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Whatever you have to hand, really.

conny said:
As anaside, just been looking at domino jointers and can only find Festool one. Don't any other manufacturers like Makita, DeWalt etc sell them? Can get biscuit jointers galore but not domino jointers.
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Nope. Festool invented them and patented the idea and whilst there are some cheaper Chinese knock-offs around (on eBay), to date none of the mainstream manufacturers has bitten. Maybe it's because the market is a bit small, especially for something which for a one off could be done with a plunge router and some jigging.

Same thing applies to Mafell dowellers - the principle of multi-boring on 32mm centres (or multiples thereof) is long established, so in that instance there could be no patent, yet the only knock offs came from one or maybe two firms in China, and they are/were truly awful! (A bit like cheap biscuit jointers - but even more accuracy is required).

If you think about it, Steiner Lamello started making biscuit jointers in the early 70s(?) at eye-watering prices, it took Elu about 8 to 10 years to come up with a design which circumvented the Lamello patents (and even the DS140 wasn't cheap in 1981/82), and maybe a further 3 or 4 years for Bosch and Virutex to bring theirs onto the market. Now everyone and their dog makes a biscuit jointer - and some if the cheap ones are horrid... So perhaps give it a few more years?
 
I should maybe have admitted, @conny, that I do have a couple of Dominos. They don't get used that much, but they are timesavers, although I probably haven't had my money's worth out of them so far
.
 
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