Cane Rocker Repair

[gahrajmahal]

It seems everyone has one of these sitting around in the "some day" I will get around to repair this pile. Well, our old rocker has been languishing in the basement serving as a pile-it-on storage device. I had even purchased the cane panel to repair this rocker a year, no maybe 3 years ago from the Rockler wood working store.

Our version is from the 80's and had been repaired once before. I don't remember what the cost was, probably between $100 - $200. I do remember it was a hassle dropping it off, calling and calling again, is it done yet? So in an effort to avoid that I "would do it myself!!"

I checked the current price for the replacement cane from Rocklers and it is $0.69 per linear inch. I purchased the 24" wide version. That's about $25.00.

Previous Repair

Now, Time to dissassemble the chair. I Put the thing up on my favorite workbench. One of those plastic foldable tables 8 ft. long. It really saves the knees. I used my cheapie electric screwdriver and a 1/4" ratchet with various screwdriver tips, used on the tight screws. I just removed the seat even though I planned to refinish the whole chair to a darker color. (more on that later).

I perused the internet and You-Tube for tips on how to do this. As usual, some I found useful, most I found lacking thoroughness. The seat frame is hardwood with a 5/16" groove routered around the perimeter.The manufactured cane material is pre-softened in warm water to make it flexible enough to be worked into the groove after centering the material over the frame. A 1/4" diameter Ratan spine is hammered into the groove to hold the cane panel. The internet posts confirmed that carpenters wood glue is used in the groove to hold the spine and I could see remnants of the glue used to hold mine in.

My first attempt to remove the spine i just grabbed an awl to dig it out, but soon realized the glue was going to hold it pretty good. Rockler sells a special chisel to dig the old spline out with, but it is a 1/2 hour drive and I didn't want to give up my time driving there, besides I got a whole garage full of tools, something could be made to work. As I looked for a chisle that could be modified I saw a file that the tang could be modified into a tiny chisel for the cause. A little work on the grinder and voila'! A few taps with a soft face hammer and I could tell this would work, but was going to take ALL DAY.

Two internet tips were to use a router to cut out the old spine. The other was to soak the spine with vinegar after drilling holes along the length so it could soak in. Well, like you I didn't have a tiny router bit and I didn't want to drill all of those holes then wait for it to soak in and soften the glue (maybe). So I went looking around again and spied the small battery operated circular saw I got when I purchased my last cordless drill. You have seen guys using these in the parking lot sawing up their lumber to fit into their compact cars. We used mine a few times and I really like the light weight and freedom from a cord.

I set the depth to just skim the bottom of the groove and using a plunge cut zipped that old spine right out of there. The blade is narrow enough that I made two passes. I had enough control I could skim it along leaving the faintest remainder of the glued cane to the sides of the groove.

All I had left was those curved corners and I decided to try the vinegar. I didn't have any white vinegar so I used Apple Cider Vinegar. Salad anyone?
I placed some Saran Wrap underneath, folded some paper towels and then soaked them with vinegar. I then wrapped them with the Saran Wrap to keep it from evaporating.

Then I stopped to eat lunch. I had about an hour and a half in the project so far.

 

[gahrajmahal]

Back after about 4 hours I wanted to see if the vinegar worked.

Low and behold it worked! I was able to pull out the old spline and some of the cane panel too. The only downside was it also softened up the wood frame. As I used my chisel/file it was easy to get additional wood fibers to pull out too.

I had cut the panel to approximate size and took it upstairs to the bathtub that I filled with hot water. The cane floats so I weighted it down with some coffee mugs. With the groove cleaned out I tried out the spline. It took about two hours to get the groove cleaned out with no more glue, old cane or spline.
I retrieved the cane panel that had been soaking. You should pay attention as one side is shiny and has a coating applied to it. This is the top surface. I also made reference marks to the centerline of the frame so I would be sure and line up the panel to the frame.
Several internet posts made clever reference to using old clothes pins to drive the softened cane into the groove. You could leave them in place to act as wedges to hold the cane panel in place.

I found that to be totally bogus. The clothes pins were not wide enough to stay wedged in the groove and the narrow width was not helpful driving the cane panel into place. I found a regular putty knife with rounded edges to work much better.

Not being able to work the cane into the groove and hold it in place with any wedges I decided to put the spline in accross the back. I tapped the cane into place with the putty knife, applied some glue to the groove, and tapped the spline into the groove with a hammer.

the next spline had to start on the side, go across the front, and return down the other side. This seemed likely that it would end up loose or crooked. I tapped the cane into the groove all around. It did not stay in place and popped back out. I applied glue to the first 6 inches or so and hammered in the spline. I added more glue, hammered in the spline and so on until I made my way around the frame.
Suprise, suprise, it wasn't too bad. I then found a short piece of wood to act as a chisel and proceeded to drive the spline deeper into the groove all around. This tightened up the cane pretty nicely. I then allowed it to dry.

Back to it a day or two later. By now the cane had tightened up like a tennis racquet. Great!

Next I got my utility knife and started to trim the excess from the border. I found that it worked better if you cut from underneath instead of from the top.

I wanted to smooth it down and remove the excess glue from the frame so I got some 180 grit sandpaper and cleaned it all up.
We also wanted to make the chair darker so I sanded the old clear finish from the frame.
Ready for reassembly.

In an earlier photo you could see a U shaped brace that i attempted to sand the finish off of. A short time of this and I could tell this was going to take forever.
I took a break to do a little research. We didn't want to paint the chair, but have a stain so you could see the wood grain. It looked like Minwax Poly Shades would allow you to darken it without going down to bare wood. Poly shades is basically Polyurethane with stain dumped in.

I decided to spray the chair because of the rounded shape and all the curly Q's.

 

[gahrajmahal]

I was using a cheapie Harbor Freight touch up gun ($15.00). It was 70 degrees out and windy. Just about perfect, warm and forced drying. It was a real pain with a lot of initial paint runs. Here is the process I finally figured out.
Set your spray gun to around 35 psi, or to just atomizing the spray.
FIrst coat: spray a dry mist coat all over. It should not look shiny.
WAIT 15 MINUTES
Spray your second coat just to be shiny then stop! It will not be covering at all.
If you can stand to wait between coats do so.
It will take between 5 to 6 coats to cover.

3 coats

I started with the chair upside down. (you should too). this allowed me to get the hang of it before doing "the money side".
Spraying took about 2 hours for each side. (bottom, let dry, then next day top)

The finished product.

 

[OccupantRJ]

Nice job on the chair. A lot of people would not have the patience to do what you did.

 

[gahrajmahal]

The re-cane was not the part that tried my patience, it was the re- finishing that was stressing me out.

 

[zoomzoomjeff]

Wow! Very nice work. We just got a rocker exactly like that for our first baby in June. Probably won't get re-finished in time, but it rocks perfectly fine. Nice to see what I may get into "some day".

Do you know anything about the vintage of that rocker? As in, how old is that style?

 

[gahrajmahal]

Michael Thonet seems to be the main guy who started the bent wood furniture movement. There was an exhibition in London in 1851 that started it all. Lots of great American companies made the stuff too. I'm sure some vintage examples would bring big bucks. The older ones wouldn't use the manufactured cane sheet though. I'm sure that came about after the machine age (late 1800's).
Enjoy your chair and congrats!

 

[gahrajmahal]

Here is a little update for anyone considering a refinish using the Minwax Polyshades. It's been a couple of weeks now and the Polyshades finish is still putting off massive amounts of fumes. I have been setting it out in the sun trying to get it to cure. The finish is plenty hard, but still stinks like I just finished it a few hours ago. So, my advise to anyone considering using this product is DON'T. I hope I can get it to stop stinking up the place soon.

 

[trainer]

Nice job on the rocker. A screen-door tool works very well for putting the spline in place.
Ive been using water-based poly lately and the results have been great and almost no odour at all and water clean-up. Personally, i've never really liked polyshades because its hard to get an even finish.

If your finish is hard, you may want to try giving it a coat of wax or furniture polish. It may clean the residues off that are causing the smell and seal the finish a bit.


I've hand caned the seats for some canoes that I've built. Mine are woven from a single strand of cane,but the resultss are very similar.

HH Perkins is a great place for cane and supplies
http://www.hhperkins.com/

 

[gahrajmahal]

Well Mr Trainer, I am humbled by your fantastic canoe. This was my first attempt at caning and I just put it up in case anyone else may be considering a similar job.
This was also my first time using the Polyshades, but I didn't want to strip the original clear finish so I could make it darker. I'm not sure what I would have done differently. I have used the water based polyurethane with excellent results. I have used regular polyurethane and only had the fumes for a day or two. But this chair continues to stink so I may try your suggestion after giving it a good wash with soap and water, and more sun time.
Did I mention awesome canoe?