Woodworking question

[matt819]

I'm not a woodworker. Also, I'm not particularly handy.

So. . .

I have chair. It's old. And except for a broken arm, it's in good shape. I haven't taken photos, so I'll try to describe. It looks like both ends of the arm connect with a dowel into the chair back and a post of sorts coming up from the seat. The entire arm is broken off, and the remains of the dowel are in the arm and the chair. If I can get the remaining bits of the dowel out of the various parts of the chair and arm, I can get a new dowel and reconnect and glue it into place. But the remains of the dowel are seriously ingrained/embedded in the various spots. What is the best way to remove them? Pick them out with a screwdriver, or maybe an awl. Drill a relatively narrow bit into the various part and then, again, try to pick the remains out? Saw off and then sand down the parts of the dowel sticking out and then drill into the dowel itself and then use a narrower dowel to connect the parts?

By the way when I saw dowel, I'm not sure that's precisely what it is, but that's the best word I can come up with to describe the connection between the wooden parts.

Or bring it to someone who knows what they're doing?

BTW, I looked up what the chair could be. I can't remember the style, but it's a 19th century style, and I'm guessing it's a reproduction made in the early-mid 20th century. Might be original. I don't know enough to know what to look for.

Thanks.

[calguy]

1. You might find some good ideas on YouTube

[lamp_shade]

2. Try this...

[katmondoo]

5. I make miniature furniture and 90 % of working with wood is fixing errors.

I use boiling water in places that have been glued to remove any broken pieces. Scrape away and sand any residue and use wood glue to replace new parts. Too bad you don't have a picture, it would be easier to see the problem.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. I did something like that recently, with a hand drill and w/o a decent chisel.

There was some language involved, but it eventually worked. Once I had an undersized hole drilled down the middle of the dowel, I used the tip of a regular screwdriver to split the wood of the dowel forming the sides of the new hole, and extracted the slivers with needle-nose pliers. YMMV.

I had it kind of easy because one end of the joint was a through hole, which was easier.

The little dowel inserts shown in the video are available in several sizes and styles at Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. You might want to go one size larger if the resulting hole is rough, and just bore it out to the new size.

Don't forget, at some point you have to utter Roy Underhill's favorite line, "and now for the boring part".

[rampartc]

3. drill it out to the diameter of the new dowels

use elmers glue (contact cement might be hard to place on something in 2 direction.) unless you are sure you can place every dowel simultaneously.)

clamp the horizontal direction with a belt or rope (like a tourniquet ) the vertical direction can be clamped with weight (big books maybe, or leg weights if the top is not flat.)

[mahina]

4. Or grind it off, cut and grind other 3 joints too and make it a chair without arms?