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Before you do something you'll possibly regret, like painting them, go to Home Depot/Lowes and get a pint of Howards Restor-a-Finish, Cherry or Mahogany ($8.00), found in the paint/stain section, also get a sleeve of 0000 steel wool, and some rubber gloves. Go home and try on one chair by applying a small amount of liquid to a pad of steel wool, rubbing lightly to any scratch/scuff, wipe and watch the magic. For any section of the chairs not scratched, just apply a small amount to a rag and wipe down all surfaces, and dry with another cloth. They will look like new, and it is soooo much easier than painting and you retain the stained look of finer furniture. If you don't like the result, you can always paint.
Regards
Gemstone1
This is a good product.
If you want more of a complete stripper for varnish, carefully mix 1/2 lacquer thinner to 1/2 denatured alcohol in a mason jar and use with very fine steel wool. Always wear rubber gloves & eyewear & use good ventilation.
Yesterday I took all the seats off the chairs and took them outside for a good cleaning. Yuck! They were very dirty and it made them look better already.
This morning I took four of them outside and used the Howards stuff on them. It did cover the minor scratches well and they look much shinier than they did, but one chair that had deep scratches doesn't look so great. The stain got in the scratches but now that part is darker than the surrounding area. Still, it's just one chair that was badly scratched.
Tomorrow I will do the other four and then start on redoing the upholstery in the seats.
So between the question in your title and this quoted comment, I vote NO. That is because COMFORT is the most important thing, for me anyway, when it comes to any furniture. If those eight chairs are only "fairly" comfortable, why go through all the work?
Okay, okay, I know I wouldn't go through all the work for "fairly" comfortable chairs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kab0906
Oh, adding - they are fairly comfortable except the flat seats.
Oops... I see you already decided. Good luck! I hope you can add comfort to them.
Last edited by geebabe; 10-12-2018 at 09:53 AM..
Reason: Oops...
So between the question in your title and this quoted comment, I vote NO. That is because COMFORT is the most important thing, for me anyway, when it comes to any furniture. If those eight chairs are only "fairly" comfortable, why go through all the work?
Okay, okay, I know I wouldn't go through all the work for "fairly" comfortable chairs.
Oops... I see you already decided. Good luck! I hope you can add comfort to them.
I agree....comfort before beauty. However, she will be recovering the seats, so it will be easy to add a fresh layer of nice firm foam.
The seats were connected to the chair very badly. Basically, they drilled a hole in the side piece and drove a screw into the under side of the chair seat and at an angle so the screw wasn't even deeply into the plywood. All this did was chew up the plywood that was the base of the seat and eventually the screws stripped the hole and the seats would move around, and fall off if you picked up an empty chair to move them. A very poor design.
So I was thinking instead of attaching some sort of L bracket to the seat bracer pieces. But there are a couple of issues with that as well: 1) the bracer pieces already have 2 screws in them that attach them to the seat and I'm worried a 3rd might just compromise that piece (I suspect it is pine); 2) I would have to drill straight down from the padded part of the seat (so the pointy part isn't up where you sit) but I'm not sure it would be a good idea in case it could be felt too - unlikely but it's a thought.
I would use bolts with nuts rather than screws to eliminate the decay of the plywood and make it easier to remove the seats should I ever want to recover them again.
So I'm asking - is there a better way that I'm not thinking of?
Attached are some photos. Ask questions if I wasn't clear.
I can't understand or picture what you're talking about, sorry.
But, if you're talking about just wanting to screw the seat onto the chair frame, and you're worried about screws messing up the frame, but you can't use an L bracket - just use a bunch of little wood screws, so there isn't just one screw that all of the stress is on. Put several screws into the seat on each of the four sides, to spread out the pressure on the attachments.
Not sure if that helps, or not, as I am not clear on the question.
Ok, I see I did not do a good job of explaining. Hopefully these pics make more sense.
The bottom line is: the method of connecting the seat to the chair frame is poor. Just 2 screws that go through the chair frame and dig into the seat plywood. The point of the screw is eating away the plywood and then the seat comes loose.
I am looking for a better way to connect the seat to the frame. I was considering an L bracket that is attached to the bracer bars (rather than the chair frame) using a bolt and nut instead of a screw.
The question is: does this seem like a good idea, or can you think of any other?
I am not sure if adding one more screw to the bracer bar would make it unstable. I was going to say, before I read the full text of your post (I read the text on the photos first) that maybe you should attach the L-bracket to the side rails. I see you are considering that as an option.
The brackets would only hold the seat in place and keep it from moving around, right? You're not really looking for something to support the weight of the person sitting on the seat, as the rails, as you call them, and that bracer bar, actually support the seat, right?
Could you either send the screw straight up from the bottom of the side rail, through the plywood, or straight up through the bracer, rather than using L-brackets? Would that still chew the plywood up as much as the original method did?
You could probably actually attach the seat very well using cams, but there is no way I am going to be able to explain how to do that. (Ever put together IKEA furniture or something similar?) A screw or bracket is more straightforward but wouldn't be as tight a fitting.
The front and back rails of the chair take most of the weight of the person sitting. I assume the bracer pieces are just structural for the chair - keeping things square and tight - although some weight naturally sits on them (there are 4 - one at each corner).
I do think it would chew the plywood eventually, as even minor shifting of the person would eventually stress the place where the point of the screw digs in.
That's why I wanted to go from the seat down, rather than under and up. Go through the entire seat with a bolt, rather than a screw, and secure it tight with a nut - no shifting! The bolt would be under the padding and (hopefully) as long as the padding is thick the top of the bolt shouldn't be felt by the person seated.
Then, if the seats ever need to be removed, just undo the nut and slip up. It shouldn't interfere with any future changes to the cover or the padding.
Oh I see what you're saying now! I missed the part about the bracket being attached from above the seat rather than from below, and I agree that is a good way to do it to minimize chewing up the plywood.
And looking at the photo again I see what you mean about the bracers being structural for the chair rather than taking much of the weight of the person sitting in the chair.
I think this sounds like a perfectly good course of action although maybe I would attach the bracket to the side rail since it is more of an integral part of the chair frame. I would wonder whether the bracer, in only being attached with screws (and probably glue) might possibly shift over time if the bracket is attached to it. I don't think an extra screw hole is the problem, just maybe new forces on the bracket could be a problem. (But they might be minimal. Probably either way would be fine.)
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