Manly Task #44

About a month ago Lillian was standing on one of the kitchen chairs and leaned back on it and it tipped over.  A scary moment but she was fine, it just frightened her but the chair must have hit just the right way and one of the main arms of the chairback cracked in half.  This wood is hard, heavy, thick wood so I was pretty shocked that it broke.  It actually cracked along a grain line so the crack at least made sense how it broke but it was still surprising.  My mother-in-law brought me over some gorilla glue and I took a shot at glueing it back together.  There was also a little chunk of wood that broke off when it cracked.  I held onto it and hoped I could work that back onto the chair again also.  So I cleaned the area, glued it, and clamped it and let it sit for 2 days.  After that I removed the clamps and lightly sanded any rough areas and touched up the wood with a wood stain marker.  It's not perfect but it is repaired and seems sturdy.

Time:  2 Days of drying, 15 minutes of gluing/clamping/sanding
Difficulty:  Easy/Medium
Cost:  A bottle of Gorilla Glue (thanks Debbie!)

Here is the link to "Bookie's Manly Tasks to do... Eventually - The List" if you are curious about other to-do adventures I have done or have in plan.

Manly Task #43

Today I finished a project that has actually been a long time coming. I will also say that it has actually been four repairs over a span of two and a half years. We purchased this really great looking kids play kitchen for Avery on her 3rd birthday and unfortunately, it didn't stand the kid test. Our little structural engineer (also known as Cal) gave the kitchen a run for it's money when it first was purchased and due to this, it's first three of four breakdowns happened. The corners of the doors just would not hold up. The wood was cheep and just wasn't meant for boisterous playing. So the microwave door broke off as well as the cupboard door under the sink. Same exact type of breaks right at where the hinge attaches to the kitchen. The microwave door was repaired right away and soon after the cupboard broke and was repaired a week later. The microwave ended up breaking again on the opposite end and it was left off the play-set for about a year and a half. The cupboard door held up pretty good. Well, finally over the last two weeks I found the missing part for the microwave door and repaired it. I took the corner and gorilla glued the piece back onto the main board. Clamped it for 24 hours and then re-drilled the hinge mounts and placed a nut and bolt on the hinge instead of screws. I was very excited to have the full kitchen back again and then literally that night the sink cupboard door completely broke off while Lillian was playing with it. I knew there was no repairing it this time. At first I admitted defeat and after some prodding/peptalk from Michele decided that I was going to build a new door for the kitchen. I went to Home Depot and found a nice piece of MDF that would be perfect. I stripped down the broken door and kept all the hardware. I then cut the MDF to size and painted it (3 coats, 1 primer and 2 of some leftover paint we had from Avery and Lil's bedroom). Today after the final coat dried I drilled all the holes and remounted the new door. The color works out great with the kitchen and I think this door will hold up a bit better. Hopefully the kitchen overall will holdup for much longer.

Time: 2 days for the cupboard door, 20 minutes for the microwave door (2 years if you count since when it actually broke)

Difficulty: Medium (Woodworking involved)

Cost: MDF - $6.99, Paint (free - leftovers from other projects)

Here is the link to "Bookie's Manly Tasks to do... Eventually - The List" if you are curious about other to-do adventures I have done or have in plan.