Do you work in wood? Trying to mend table...

John_Gray

This is technical in an industry-specific sense!

We (our charity) have a substantial wooden table about 2½m x 1¼m, which has a single central leg at one end, held on by a die-cast (aluminium?) fitting which is screwed to the underside of the table top, and extends down into the (hollow) wooden leg, being held there by an allen bolt which expands the fitting slightly to grip the leg internally.

The leg has broken off (the fitting having sheared) because of severe sideways motion of the table top

The fitting has only the words BREVETTATO and CAMAP inlaid into it. I can find nothing whatever via Google which would enable me to source a replacement fitting.

Since the table is good quality, with 'proper' wood, we are reluctant to throw it out, so I wonder whether any of the above makes sufficient sense to someone who works in the furniture-making industry and who knows where this sort of fitting might be obtained?

Thanks!

Richie-from-the-Boro

I've seen the BREVETTATO, [ their name ] on everything from guns to mirrors.

Barker & Stonehouse used to re-sell BREVETTATO stuff 30 or 40 years ago, maybe they still do. Pop in and ask the nice salesperson but leave your cash / plastic etc at home before you go John, they are megga expensive.

If the table in question is of a certain age it could be worth real money to a BREVETTATO collector.

Put some picture (s) up John.

Is it the wooden island leg that's broken because of the action of the allen bolt onto the wood? , or;

The alloy fitting that holds the island leg that's fractured ?

- the alloy fitting is probably easy for a blacksmith to reproduce, or a half decent backyard welder / fabricator

- the wooden leg I'd need to see - but nothing is impossible, scarf a new piece in, re-do with modern expoxy's, etc, need to see the extent of the damage ! but a retired ' old hand cabinetmaker ' or shipwright might be excited by such a challenge.

John_Gray

It's the fitting which has sheared at table-top (well, table-bottom!) level, but the leg is fine (but for having the remains of the fitting still held securely within the hollow leg at the top). Within the leg, the allen bolt causes three segments to expand slightly, so it's a fairly complicated arrangement, and I would doubt very much if it could be remade by anyone! I don't know what the metal is, other than where it has broken the break is quite rough. I suspect it is some aluminium alloy.

I will try post a couple of photos tomorrow, if I can work out how to do this.

spakkker

Couldn't you screw a piece of timber eg.12"x"12 of thickness equal to the fitting, to the top of the leg and then screw up into the table top?

John_Gray

Unfortunately the leg is completely hollow, about 10cm in diameter, with probably less than 1cm of thickness of wood. It is constructed from curved staves, held together by some mechanism I haven't investigated... Think of a very thin and straight barrel!

timbim_2

Does it need to be removable, or is a permanent attachment of the leg to the table acceptable?

If you can get away with that, just clean up the top of the leg and bottom of the table, and screw it in with some angle brackets. Not elegant, but solves the problem with minimal fuss.

John_Gray

I'd thought of that idea, but on the leg you would be screwing the angle brackets into less than 1cm of wood. And we're talking heavy table...

spinybif_2

Try Woodfit - they have all sorts of fittings

http://www.woodfit.com/

spakkker

You could glue lots of pieces of wood ,say 1"x1" and 10" long to the inside of the leg to build up the thickness of the wall ,all level at the top, even filling up the entire hollow. A bit of whittling could make the fit nice and close. Then screw a block to that.
You may get away with screwing to the existing "wall" if you use thinner screws ,say 6 guage,3.5mm, and lots of them say at least a dozen+

John_Gray

How it fitted originally





The broken off fitting in the leg, with the allen bolt on the left.
The apparently T-shaped bits are what holds the leg together, and aren't part of the fitting.





How it fixed to the underside of the table (the divided white ring is where the leg broke off)

enigma52

put a dowel inside the leg then use angle brackets