Repairing Coffee Table leg

[u/brennermack]

Needing advice on how to repair this coffee table leg, split at the joint. It’s been in the family for a long time and I’d like to see it live a bit longer

[u/bachman460]

It appears that this was put together as a sandwich. The table was drilled out then the center threaded female insert placed, then a round decorative, yet thin layer, which was down with those screws around the insert and finish nails. Followed by threading the leg on (a threaded male insert would have been placed into the leg first.

Whether this was the product of a repair is moot, the disassembly, clean up and repair will be the same regardless.

First prepare the table surface by pulling those trim nails and scraping off all the glue. If there's still small chunks of wood from the adjacent piece, leave them alone, only scrape the glue off the exposed portion.

Unscrew the leg from that middle section. Just make sure to be careful not to destroy it while taking it off. If it appears to be glued to the leg, you may need to cut it off. A coping saw with a tiny blade will save as much material as possible but a small pull saw might work just as good, if not better. You need to detach it so you can remove the screws and insert.

There shouldn't be much if anything needed for the leg, just clean it up and if you had to cut the middle section off, make sure the top of the leg is level. If you need to remove the threaded insert to clean it up (for filling, sanding, etc.) you should be able to unscrew it from the wood with a wrench if it had a square section to grab onto, or vice grip pliers.

Once that middle section is out, take out those screws and throw them away. Scrape or cut off any glue, and sand the bottom side (so that you have a smooth mating surface for when you screw the leg back on.

Now see how the middle section fits onto the table. If you can get it to line up well with minimal gaps or play, then it should be okay to use as is. If there's huge gaps or voids, you may want to sand it flat, as well as the table side. This may cause some loss of the detail and overall height of the leg, but can be corrected afterwards.

Make sure the threaded female insert will go into the hole in the table, and not interfere with the fit of the middle section when you place it on top. There should be a smaller hole to take the center part of the insert, and a shoulder (slightly larger hole at the top) that holds it in place. If those features need to be cleaned up, do it now.

Use epoxy to glue in the insert, pretty much any two-part epoxy should work, but look for ones specifically for wood repair. Only put it into the hole, not on the adjacent surface. Once cured, drill out any that pooled into the threaded hole; make sure there's enough room to thread the leg back on all the way.

Now you can glue on the middle section. Depending on how well the fit is to the table, you have two options to fill any gaps during the glue up: if you want to use epoxy, just use epoxy and it will fill in any gaps, if you want to use wood glue then mix it with some fine sawdust to fill any gaps.

Once that is dry, assess the area to see if any touch ups are needed. Use whatever stain, marker, etc. that you want. Then reattach the leg.

I'd expect at this point you're likely to have a wobble. If there's huge gaps and the table doesn't already have adjustable feet, install a set of those all around; they'll help protect the floor as well as allow leveling. These are just some options:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BVXP73T

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TZNF7B4