Two structural defects to be fixed included the wobbling sliding dovetails (which are housed in the table top, connecting it to the supporting legs) and a longitudinal fracture in the leg.
To fix the sliding dovetails (SDs), we had to first chisel out the stoppers (using guide blocks to maintain the correct chisel angle) and remove the SDs. A veneer was glued to the bottom of the SDs and new SD stoppers were fashioned. Finally, the SDs were sanded to the correct thickness, with the frontal width made 2 mm narrower (for a better fit), and glued along a third of the length (to allow for wood movement).
To fix the fracture, we reinforced the contact surfaces with dowels and fashioned a complementary piece on a bandsaw to ease the clamping. During glueup we combined a regular clamp with a tourniquet (rope) clamp to distribute the pressure evenly and prevent slippage.
The repaired areas were sanded and stained to match the color and the table surface refinished with urethane varnish.
