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Fix Cracked Wood

Here's how to glue a crack shut so it'll be stronger than the surrounding wood.

My African folding chair cracked lengthwise.

I fixed it with epoxy thickened with wood dust. That's usually the best thing, but use whatever you've got. Even Elmer's school glue is okay if the crack isn't separated too far.

If you're fixing a valuable musical instrument talk to a luthier about glues. They'll suck you into a glue-filled time-vortex.

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Step 1Clean the Injury

This crack happened to be an old glue joint,. So I needed to remove or at least scuff the remaining glue so the new glue would stick.

I pried the crack apart and sanded as high in the crack as I could. Then I pushed the crack together to sand the outer part.

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6 comments

Jun 27, 2008. 8:03 PMJaniePatricia says:

what made you choose Epoxy instead of wood glue?

Oct 6, 2010. 3:19 PMandreblue says:

wood glue is MADE to bond with wood, it is just as strong, you can glue your own fingers together with it

Dec 28, 2008. 10:59 PMunderwhelmed says:

Just guessing, but since he said he was doing another repair, he was probably just using the left overs so they wouldn't go to waste as this is a rather expensive epoxy.