The New Hotness

A wood desk chair that I’ve known since I was a pup finally got some much-needed attention, although not a restoration. By and large, I’m finally sorting out that corner of the basement and needed to put the chair’s parts back together so I can work on something else.

The wood seat consists of several slabs glued along keyed joints, one of which had fractured into a rough mess. Amazingly, the two sides fit perfectly together, albeit with the bottom no longer a planar surface, and glued up just like they should:

Wood desk chair - seat clamping — Wood desk chair – seat clamping

The chair isn’t up to contemporary office standards, but it has a seat elevation screw, a backrest with adjustable angle & elevation, and even a backrest tension setting:

Wood desk chair - ironwork — Wood desk chair – ironwork

It was the cutting edge of desk chair technology:

Wood desk chair - patented — Wood desk chair – patented

I vaguely recall it rolled on long-vanished steel-wheeled casters. Somewhat less long ago, one of the legs broke enough to lose its caster socket (about which, more later), so I set about yanking the three remaining sockets:

Wood desk chair - caster socket removal — Wood desk chair – caster socket removal

During that struggle, another leg revealed a neat woodwork joint:

Wood desk chair - leg joint — Wood desk chair – leg joint

It’s easy to remove a caster socket when you can bash it from the top!

Gluing that piece back in place required Too Many Clamps™ aligning it with the leg:

Wood desk chair - leg clamping — Wood desk chair – leg clamping

But the end result looks pretty good:

Wood desk chair - leg glued — Wood desk chair – leg glued

They did a nice job of matching the wood grain; I hadn’t noticed that joint while attacking the socket.

Pending restoring the broken leg’s socket, the soon-to-arrive new casters will clash horribly with the chair’s woodwork. At least it’ll roll again and its new plastic wheels won’t scar the floors.

The New Hotness

Antique Desk Chair Woodwork