I'd try the new gorilla wood glue.
The danger of drilling out the center line is the difficulty in getting it centered and straight.
Regular wood glue requires a tight fit, which you're unlikely to get with a break.
Epoxy will hold, even without a tight fit, but cleaning up the squeeze-out would be difficult.
Cleaning up the gorilla glue squeeze-out can be done with water.
Make sure you clamp it firmly. Make sure you don't clamp it so tight as to starve the join of glue.
Sounds to me like they knocked the leg horizontally, to cause the kind of break you describe. Since the break is diagonal, it should provide good vertical support.
Thanks, Drew Dad. I've used gorilla glue for a few things and have liked it so far...
The break is, how to say, both.. part horizontal and part fairly extreme diagonal. I'm going to glue it with the backboard (still can't think of the right word) upside down, so the broken leg is sticking up in the air. That way, the separated leg piece's weight, while much less than the wait of the whole backboard, will put some glueing pressure on the horizontal part of the break, and the clamp will presumably hold the long diagonal part.
I've been thinking since my last post that I hate to drill into the mahogony.. it's a really good bed from a no longer existing company, McClellan furniture. Every piece I still have by them was very well made. My mother worked in the twenties, maybe early thirties, for an interior designer in Beverly Hills. So, when she married my father in 1935 and they bought furniture, she had an 'educated' eye.. on the other hand, maybe it was through her sister. The sister's husband was a tool and dye maker and wood worker, so it might have been his eye that picked the furniture for both homes.
I know I posted earlier that looks don't matter and I could add some kind of steel leg, or wood one, but I'd rather work out support another way.
Anyway, my point of view this morning is to glue the leg best I can, and support the backboard near that leg without damaging the wood. Perhaps some kind of brace, perhaps a stack of heavy books, perhaps a footstool, we'll see. I'll look at bracing first, natch.
Clamp the diagonal break (at least two clamps), then place a strap vertically along the leg to pull it into the horizontal break.
Even some twine with a stick to twist it tight would be good enough.
Then individually re-clamp the clamps on the diagonal break.
Make sure you let it cure for the required time.
Right. Well, I'm not doing this this weekend. First the photos.
The trouble with a vertical stick is there is no easy vertical. The leg is a series of various widths of bulbs with short spaces between. The break occurred at the longest of these, the diagonal goes through that, for, say, 1 1/4" and the horizontal is right before another bulb out. This mysterious description will become clear when I illuminate it with photos when I get my act together. (figure out how to use my digicam? use my reg camera and get it on a disc? stay tuned.
I might even play with the gorilla glue a bit, to double check how it acts on some pieces of wood I don't care about.
(continued thanks)
Wait a minute Dearie...
I thought we were waiting for you to charge battries or clear a memory card. I been checkin in hourly only to find out...
We are waiting for you to figure out the camera so we can help you figure out.....(I see a pattern)
Do you maybe have a polaroid camera, Ossso?
I have a nikon, dearie. I think I gave the polaroid away. Even if I had it I'd have to get the scanner going, and I've had trouble with scanners and computer conflicts before, so I'm not rushing on that. Best bet is for me to use film, which I have, and have Walgreens put it on a disc. So there.
You're waiting for someone else to change a battery card - Walter, on another thread.
You're waiting for me to move the furniture....
On the other hand, I could move the bedboard to upside down where it's resting now, in front of a nude painting. That would probably increase the interest level...
but, I can't get a full view of the entire bedboard without moving it to a white wall from which I can stand back. This will take some rearranging, and, what time is it anyway, probably some wine. Be calm.
I think I would put the dang thing in storage if I were you.
My main motivation is to roll out a certain rug under it...
Plus trying to clean out the garage so I can have garage sales. Here that word has meaning as we have wind and sand, and I'd like some shelter for the garage sales, so things don't just blow away in the front yard if the winds come up.
well, not quite the main motivation, as I would like to fix it, though not make things worse.
I disagree with DrewDad on the type of glue.
If it is a break, it probably broke along the grain of the wood. That means the two pieces will fit together fairly well. Yellow wood glue is the stronger glue for wood to wood. (Recent article in one of the woodworking magazines confirmed this with mortise and tenon joints.) Dry fit the pieces and if they fit well together then use yellow glue and a clamp of some kind to hold it tight for 20 minutes. Allow to cure for at least 24 hours before using it. Since it is load bearing I would suggest 72 hours.
Wood glue when properly clamped and cured is stronger than the wood itself.
I think I agree with Parados, but won't know til I see a DANG PITCHER...
Waitng semi patiently.
RH
Thanks for weighing in, Parados.
It's a wee bit dark here right now for me to be testing best fit - I want daylight, but the break is, I think, both rough and fitable, or should be. I think both carpenters glue and gorilla have some time forgiveness, correct me if I'm wrong. I have pretty good hand eye coordination, if I do say so, though somewhat less than in my heyday teaching residents to aim tiny needles at 1 mm agar wells in a perpendicular fashion. (Some funny scenarios there, back then.)
I plan to do the photo op tomorrow, if not pick up the disc tomorrow, since folks have been so helpful.
Showing you guys the leg/foot closeups may help - sorta baby stalagmites, or is that stalactites, on the horizontal part - well both, given the two wood components, the main backboard with leg broken off, and the broken off leg.
