How about something different?  I don't often do repairs but just thought I'd share this one.

 

A few years ago some friends asked if I could repair their Oak table pedestal.  I took a handful of photos at the time but just decided to make a short video compilation of these.  So here's a shot of the broken pedestal, the repaired pedestal, and the short video. 

 

Nice!

Thanks, Lew! They liked it so that's good 'nuff for me. 

Happy to see you posting “over here” 

13 minutes ago, lew said:

Happy to see you posting “over here” 

Funny thing to me is I always just look for new posts regardless of which subforum they're in, so as I type this I'll have to look to see where I've placed this one.  

Wow what a train wreck. Have to say what truck ran over that. Unbelievable that you could do it that well. When I glue a broken piece back in there is always a slight mismatch.

23 minutes ago, Gerald said:

Wow what a train wreck. Have to say what truck ran over that. Unbelievable that you could do it that well. When I glue a broken piece back in there is always a slight mismatch.

Thanks, Gerald!  It took a bit of work to get everything back in alignment but it came out pretty good.

 

Train wreck is an understatement; she fell through the ceiling while scrounging for something in the attic. She's tall at 6', not overweight, but a 10' ceiling and person falling through creates quite a bit of momentum! She was fine, nothing but a scratch or two. The table pedestal wasn't so lucky.

Pretty impressive job there,   I'd have been tempted to recommend sending the bits to the recycle center (or my own shop).  Like Gerald my mind wants to know how that damage happened.   My first guess would be that it was dropped off a truck or some such,  Second guess would be that someone who shouldn't have tried to dance on that table.

Thanks!  It was actually a fun repair job.  See the post above for what happened.  

7 hours ago, lew said:

Happy to see you posting “over here” 

me too!!

 

Excellent save David. I see why they were happy. Glad no one was injured during the making of the film.

9 minutes ago, Grandpadave52 said:

me too!!

 

Excellent save David. I see why they were happy. Glad no one was injured during the making of the film.

Haha!  Thanks, Dave!  Yep, all were safe, pride injuries aside. 

Enjoyed watching the video  David. Great save and nobody will ever know except you.

54 minutes ago, Al B said:

Enjoyed watching the video  David. Great save and nobody will ever know except you.

Thanks, Al!  And thanks for watching the short video.  It's not my normal video style and I don't usually do repairs but this one looked like fun so I accepted the work.

15 hours ago, Al B said:

Enjoyed watching the video  David. Great save and nobody will ever know except you.

 

'cepting David and a few hundred of his close friends!

35 minutes ago, Cal said:

 

'cepting David and a few hundred of his close friends!

Yep, it's a secret until the video exposé comes out! LOL! 

I liked the all-thread clamps.  Was it hard to match the stain?  

I have fallen partially through a ceiling twice, fortunately snagged the floor joists with my arm pits.  She’s probably better off hitting the table, to break her fall.  

1 hour ago, Ed-H said:

I liked the all-thread clamps.  Was it hard to match the stain?  

I have fallen partially through a ceiling twice, fortunately snagged the floor joists with my arm pits.  She’s probably better off hitting the table, to break her fall.  

The only difficult part of matching the stain is that I rarely stain anything, preferring to work with exotic woods and fine domestic woods like Curly Maple, Curly Koa, Walnut Burl, etc.  I don't stain these at all and since I'm not in the repair business I only have a couple of stains on hand and that honey Oak color isn't one of them.  Matter of fact, Red Oak is one of my least favorite woods ranking just a tiny notch above Pine so I had very little of that on hand, as well.  So yes, matching the stain wasn't that easy. 

 

You're fortunate to have been saved by the floor joists.  She was fortunate in that they were putting things up from an event at their house and a couple of hours earlier the table was well covered in candles, serving dishes, silverware, etc., any of which would have really caused her harm but they had just cleared the table about an hour before she fell.  She landed flat on her back onto the table top and only got a couple of scratches from the sheetrock.

Lots a liability in chair designs.  I've been hired twice as an expert witness for lawsuits about failed chairs.  When I worked in a furniture company they avoided making proposed chair designs 99% of the time as the company lawyers had already been through one suit about one of their chairs that failed under use.  Falling through a ceiling to break a table seems like unexpected use of the table so I doubt anyone could win a suit about the table failing.  Might be one thing for dining table designers to consider though when doing the structural analysis for a design. Will it survive 200lbs dropped from 8 to 10 feet above occasionally? 

4D   

That would certainly be a nail in the coffin for elegant designs if something had to withstand that sort of force.