Hecker Woodworking

Here is a picture of my presentation last Wednesday at the Networking Group of the Indian Valley. For more information about my company visit www.HeckerWoodworking.com.

DOING HANDWORK IS FUN AND CHALLENGING. I finished this job the other day. A guy had this old window sash that had a rotten bottom rail. It was from an old Andersen window. Replacement sash was no longer available and to replace the window was about $1300.00. I fixed it for him for less than $200.00. What was fun about the job was that it was mostly hand work. Doing hand work really puts a person back in touch with the roots of woodworking. There's not a lot of guys left out there that can do it.

MORE ON DOWEL JOINTS AND BAD REPAIR WORK Here is an example of an old coffee table that had loose legs. I thought that it was going to be a quick and easy job. However, once I got into it I saw that previous repairs had been poorly done. There were nails and screws buried deep in the legs and the only way they came apart was in pieces. Nails and screws are seldom (if ever) a proper repair unless they were used originally. Anyway, a 1 hour job turned into 4 1/2 hours. The end result was nice, though. Maybe some day I will remember to take before and after pictures!

DOWEL JOINTS All furniture needs to be held together with something. In woodworking, components are often joined together using dowels. This is usually considered to be a strong joint but, over time, the glue holding the dowels can dry out and lose its strength. When this happens, chairs and tables will start to wobble. This is especially true with chairs. Quite often, a person will try to reinforce the joint with screws or nails. This is NEVER considered to be a satisfactory... repair. The only acceptable way to repair a loose table or chair is to re-glue it. If the chair isn't re-glued, it will eventually break, possibly resulting in an injury. Then the owner will be faced with either a substantial repair bill or the cost of replacing the chair. If you have a loose table or chair. let me know. We re-glue these things all the time. The cost is reasonable, nobody gets hurt and the chair is saved for posterity! See more

ANTIQUES It's not uncommon for people to have a genuine antique somewhere in there house. It may not be overly valuable but probably has some historical significance to the family. These pieces should be maintained in as close to original condition as possible. The dresser shown is a circa 1850 walnut piece that was not in very good shape. The finish was damaged and the drawers didn't work well. I made several repairs to the structure of the dresser. Whenever repairs are made... to an antique, nothing should be done that is not reversible. The finish was not original so I was able to retouch the top to make it look a little better. Now the piece looks nice and is ready for many more years of service and will hopefully be passed down to future generations. If your antique is in good working condition there is nothing wrong with using it every day. These things were meant to be used. If you have a question about a piece of furniture, give me a call.