Materials you'll need:

• PVA or other wood glue
• Dowelling
• New section of rail
• Wood filler
• Metal mending plates

Tools you'll need:

• Carpenter's pencil
• Drill
• Dowelling jig
• Dowel centres
• Knife
• Clamping devices
• Wood screws
• Chisel

Many discarded items of furniture can be restored to useful life by simple means. If joints in furniture have worked loose, take the pieces apart (numbering them with a carpenter's pencil so you can reassemble them later). Clean any glue off the old dowels and joins, and out of holes and mortices, then reglue the joints and clamp together until dry. If dowels have become too loose for their sockets, glue a plug of wood into the hole and redrill to take a larger dowel.

Broken rungs and legs.
A broken rail or chair leg can be repaired the following way if the break is straight across:

1. Drill a hole in both pieces to take dowelling. It is essential that the dowel holes line up exactly or the pieces will not align properly. The tool to use for this is called a dowelling jig. This handy gauge holds the drill used for boring the holes in the exact position required. You can also use a set of dowel centres, which are small button-like items. When the pieces are lined up, the sharp points in the dowel centres make holes in the corresponding piece of timber, showing where to drill the other hole.

The diameter of the dowels used should be about a third the total timber thickness.

2. Cut dowels to fit, making them about 4mm shorter than the depth of both holes, with the ends rounded so they enter the holes easily. Cutting a groove along one side of the dowel with a knife will assist the glue to grip firmly.

3. Check the fit of the dowel before applying glue.

4. Apply suitable glue such as PVA to all surfaces and clamp the pieces together. A split leg or rail can be held with a G-clamp. Larger surfaces can be clamped with a sash cramp which has wide jaws and works like a vice, keeping the surfaces together by pressure from the sides. A belt or web clamp can be used instead. This is made from heavy duty webbing with a fastener, which has a ratchet action to tighten it around the object being clamped. Make sure cloth padding is used with clamps to protect timber.

To replace a broken rail altogether, drill out the stump of dowel from the previous joint. Cut a new section of rail (preferably from the same timber and about the same age as the chair). Using a dowelling jig as described, drill a hole in the new rail and insert dowel. Test for fit before gluing, then glue into the dowel socket. Drill right through the other chair leg and hammer in a dowel to about 1Omm below the surface of the leg. Drill a corresponding hole in the leg and glue all surfaces, then join and clamp until cured. Use a belt clamp around both legs, ensuring the legs are at the correct angle. When dry, glue a plug of timber into the hole and sand level with the leg, finishing to match the surrounding woodwork.

Joining with metal plates.
If a piece of furniture has split completely apart, dowel and glue the sections as described. For additional strength, fix metal mending plates across the split. These come in various shapes and make a quick, easy and secure joint. A straight mending plate is simply screwed into position with wood screws across the split, at right angles to it. For a neater job, hold the plate in position and draw around it, then carefully chisel out the wood a little deeper than the plate depth. Screw plate into this mortice and cover with wood filler to match surrounding wood. If braces holding the chair joints become loose, they can be strengthened with angle versions of these plates. They are screwed into position just below the old wooden brackets.