Crack in wood supporting monitor! What should I do (before Home Depot closes!)

pookdolie

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Crack in wood supporting monitor! What should I do (before Home Depot closes!)

Check out attached picture - this is on a Bally / Midway cabaret cabinet. That wood is supporting the 13" monitor underneath (another plate supports it from the top). I don't want it to crash down, so what should I do? Clamp and glue? Nails?
 

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Probably too late for Home Depot...... but I'd glue and clamp it then place a nailer block or "L" bracket under it.
 
Don't use Gorilla Glue. Good bonding strength, but tends to spooge out and be messy.

A woodworking magazine, Fine Woodworking I think, did a test/compare of glues. Overall, yellow wood glue won out over the newer glues like Gorilla Glue. I suggest Titebond 2, or Elmer's Carpenter's Glue.

I can't really tell from that pic, but it appears that however that piece was anchored to the cabinet side has come loose. You'll have to make sure that support is secured to the cabinet side.
 
Oh.. I think I see what happened. The top edge (1/4"?) of that piece fits into a slot in the side of the cabinet. Remove the monitor to take the stress off of that. Glue and clamp the split piece together, but also get glue into that joint, whether or not it was originally glued.
 
Oh.. I think I see what happened. The top edge (1/4"?) of that piece fits into a slot in the side of the cabinet. Remove the monitor to take the stress off of that. Glue and clamp the split piece together, but also get glue into that joint, whether or not it was originally glued.

Argh - any way to do this w/o taking out the monitor?
 
Don't use Gorilla Glue. .

Gorrilla Glue is fine to use, just do not use the self expanding
stuff otherwise you will have a mess., they do make a regular
wood glue (non expanding) will say so right on the bottle.
 
A woodworking magazine, Fine Woodworking I think, did a test/compare of glues. Overall, yellow wood glue won out over the newer glues like Gorilla Glue. I suggest Titebond 2, or Elmer's Carpenter's Glue.

I remember that test. The raw results can be a little misleading. With just a few exceptions, all of the quality glues were stronger than the wood they held together when applied properly. i.e. the joint didn't break, the wood tore away from one side.

The most important thing to remember is that glues lose significant strength when they have to bridge a gap, even a small one. Clamp it tight so you have a gap the thickness of a piece of paper or smaller. Also, glues also are weakest in a butt joint, and strongest in a face joint. So when you have perpendicular joint (like a monitor shelf), add a cleat to make it two face joints.
 
Not if you want to do it right. You need to glue and clamp the joint with the stress/weight off of it. I guess you can clamp it up with the monitor, but I wouldn't.

Definitely deload and glue. Otherwise it may be warped w/o load
 
Not if you want to do it right.
Definitely deload and glue. Otherwise it may be warped w/o load

You're both right, of course. But I'm thinking I'll half-ass it enough so that I know the monitor won't come crashing down, wait until I'm ready for a monitor re-build, and extract the thing and repair the wood then...
 
Is there a problem with just replacing the wood with a brand new piece? Seems if your going to put that much work into something one might as well do it right. At least that's what I'd do. Don't mess with glue or clamps, just replace it.

Check out attached picture - this is on a Bally / Midway cabaret cabinet. That wood is supporting the 13" monitor underneath (another plate supports it from the top). I don't want it to crash down, so what should I do? Clamp and glue? Nails?
 
Is there a problem with just replacing the wood with a brand new piece?

Yeah - I absolutely suck at working with wood, and I don't want to ruin the cab in the process.

I'm just trying to hold it together until I'm ready to engage a good cabinet maker to fix it.
 
Is there a problem with just replacing the wood with a brand new piece? Seems if your going to put that much work into something one might as well do it right. At least that's what I'd do. Don't mess with glue or clamps, just replace it.

The wood piece fits into dados in the cabinet sides, so you either bust the cabinet apart, or make a replacement in 2 pieces, joined in the middle, but that adds and additional joint..
 
Geeze... just use an "L" bracket and be done with it. Make sure the screws are short enough they won't go through the side of the cabinet though because it'd suck it to damage that little Galaxian there. :)
 
Geeze... just use an "L" bracket and be done with it. Make sure the screws are short enough they won't go through the side of the cabinet though because it'd suck it to damage that little Galaxian there. :)

So, dovetail joints are out?
 
I'm thinking about shoring up this monitor with a couple of bolts.

The first picture shows the holes I'd put a bolt through on the monitor. The second shows the clearance between the frame and the inside wall of the game.

I did a pencil trace inside the hole onto paper (if there's anyone else who's put bolts through the frame of a 13" Wells Gardner before and knows the size, please chime in). Once the bolt is in there, how do I secure the monitor to it? Washer/nut? washer/nut on each side of the frame (two washers, two nuts for each bolt?) Something to fill the gap? How would you install them?
 

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Ah, sorry I don't own any cabarets. As a general rule of thumb I try to stick to OEM as much as possible, but when they do crap like this, it just makes it hard. In this situation I'd consider pine blocking, but like I say, I don't have one so it's hard to picture to circumstance.

The wood piece fits into dados in the cabinet sides, so you either bust the cabinet apart, or make a replacement in 2 pieces, joined in the middle, but that adds and additional joint..
 
I'm thinking about shoring up this monitor with a couple of bolts.

The first picture shows the holes I'd put a bolt through on the monitor. The second shows the clearance between the frame and the inside wall of the game.

I did a pencil trace inside the hole onto paper (if there's anyone else who's put bolts through the frame of a 13" Wells Gardner before and knows the size, please chime in). Once the bolt is in there, how do I secure the monitor to it? Washer/nut? washer/nut on each side of the frame (two washers, two nuts for each bolt?) Something to fill the gap? How would you install them?

You are making this about 5x harder than it actually is. Disconnect the monitor, remove a couple of bolts, pull it out. That will take about 5 minutes. Now glue, clamp, install a support cleat. 10 minutes. Allow to dry, reinstall monitor.
 
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