Disney carving broken - advice needed

[Sparky17]

When I was a teenager (25 years ago), my aunt and I went to Disney World where she purchased a solid wood carving of Mickey Mouse. This was a big deal for us since we were not rich and this ended up costing her $1200 even in the 1980's. Well, fast forward and I just turned 40 years old. My aunt decided she wanted to give this carving to me for my 40th. The only problem is that even though it was packed in two internal and one external box, the carving got broken at the legs.

Because this is a special item, I would like to get it repaired in such a way as to minimize seeing the destruction that our friends at Fedex did to the sculpture.

Is there anyone on this forum who specialized in a repair such as this? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Scott Hritz

[Tom Ellis]

Where are you located Scott? If that is a one inch dowel, it should be a pretty easy fix. You can drill a hole in each leg, and put in a wooded pin, and since the legs are a solid black, your repair would hardly show after repainting the legs. You could probably do this yourself.

Tom

[carver33]

The breaks look pretty clean, so a yellow wood glue (Titebond, Elmer's, etc.) would work just fine. Any woodworker or woodcarver should be able to effect the repair fairly easily. If there are chips out of the wood, filling and re-painting might be a little harder, but not by much.

[Big_Al]

Take a soft lead pencil and put a dot on the two top legs then sit on the bottom ones. You will see two marks. Drill 1/8 " holes in all four stubs. Insert 1/8" dowels in the top two legs and leave about 1" sticking out. Redrill the bottom holes slightly larger to give you some wiggle room. Do a tryout fit and if they align, use five minute epoxy. Do not wipe the joint. After it's dry and set (two hours) Cut off any excess glue and paint. Good luck. Big Al

[cgm]

I totally agree with what carver33 said. That wood be a simple repair. When the glue dries it will be stronger where the break was than before it was broke.
Carl

[hobo]

pm me i can fix . even carve ya new one if you want.

[Whittled Thumb]

Holes, dowels, Elmers wood glue, and creative clamping! That will fix it!

[Tony Agatucci]

Sparky,

As the previous posts indicate, this is not as dire as it appears and can be fixed. The breaks fortunately look clean with little fragmentation. When you hold the pieces together, you have see how much wood filler you will need.. The paint is dense so the black will hide the seams reasonably and cover any wood filler.

I agree with drilling, insertion of dowel rod, and gluing. The trick is to get your holes lined up to accept the dowel rods.

First, put the pieces together to the fit that you want. As inconspicuously as possible, make a vertical mark on each upper and lower portion on each side to align them with one continuous line above and below the break. Do this lightly so it can be erased when all done.

Drill the holes in each upper leg. You want the correct orientation the first time around otherwise you are going to have to drill and redrill which will weaken the legs.Do as Lynn Doughty does and do not remove the sawdust from the holes or turn the legs facing downward to avoid having the sawdust fall out. Clean the surface but do not blow out the dust in the holes. Position the lower legs onto the upper legs and orient them anatomically correct now turning them upright and tap gently on the upper legs while maintaining the position. Have someone help you hold things in place. Carefully remove the upper portion without shifting it around, and you should see a faint amount of sawdust on the lower legs that has fallen out of the drilled holes directly above the spot in each leg that you want to drill your holes into the lower leg to accept the other end of the dowel rod. This locates the position of the other hole in each leg for the other end of the dowel rod. Take a lead pencil and place a mark where the dust is located. Now drill vertically for each hole to avoid angulation. Alternately, you can put a small spike into the first hole and let it mark the position of the other hole for you.

If you can very carefully carve out a small depression in the center of each leg, that would help. Stay away from the edge at all cost. Support the leg when doing this. If you are not familiar with carving, forget it. Just score the surface with a sharp edge on both the top and lower portions to increase surface area for the glue to adhere. Again stay away from the edge. Put the glue into the holes and onto the surface. The small depression, if created, will act as a well for more glue to accumulate to strengthen the bond. Make sure the alignment is where you want it. Remember the vertical lines you made in step one. Those marks should be perfectly in line.

The shapes are irregular so clamping may be awkward and not evenly applied. Cut bicycle inner tubes into strips long enough to circle your piece also as Lynn does and wrap them around the parts. This will work fine and will accommodate the shape well with good application of pressure. Tuck in the end piece.

If something is unclear, ask. This piece is a nice remembrance of a memorable time with a special aunt.

Tony Agatucci

[Lynn O. Doughty]

Doweling is the only way to go. The breaks are on the cross grain so the wood is very weak at those points. Just glueing them would hold the pieces together but they wouldn't solve the problem of the joint always being the weakest point on the carving. Inserting wooden dowels will solve this problem and increase the strength at the break tremendously.

[BrandantR]

Yup, dowels and glue is the only way to go. If you slightly oversize the hole for the dowels then even if you holes are not perfectly in line and perpendicular to the break, you will have enough play to get the joint lined up right.