How To Repair Broken Spindles

As usual, click any photo to bring up a larger version.

Here are two mutual spindles. These are a pair of standard spindles plant in houses just like mine all over the place. They are used on a staircase, nether the railing, or forth the edge of a mezzanine, or somewhere similar.

One spindle is cleaved, one is not...

Yet just a brusque time prior to this photo, both spindles were broken in a similar style. It doesn't take much to break i. At their narrowest point, the spindles are less than an inch thick.

The practiced news is that repairing a broken spindle can be achieved adequately quickly without likewise much grief. All y'all demand is an appropriately sized section of hardwood dowel, a drill press, and a forstner bit. I used five/eight" diameter maple dowel, which is about ane/eight-3/16" skinnier than the narrow function of the spindle at the intermission. I cutting a 2" section of dowel, and and so sanded the ends to simply round them over a chip. I recommend making a test hole in some chip, to brand certain that your dowel and your forstner flake are well matched in size.

Side by side, turn your attention to the broken spindle. The first step is to cut away some of the crude edges at the suspension. We've broken 4 or v spindles in my house over the past 10 years, and most seem to break pretty cleanly at the skinniest spot. But trim the bare wood pieces, do not cut away at the stained areas. You don't want to shorten the spindle!

Mount the broken slice in your drill press and become information technology lined up with your forstner fleck. Equally you'll see in the photo, y'all need a fair bit of pinnacle for this operation. It might be tricky to manage this with a benchtop drillpress.

Carefully drill a hole in the end of each spindle. Each hole needs to be at least an inch deep, to adjust a 2" dowel. I recommend allowing ane/four" extra depth, for gum space.

Unfortunately, I missed taking a moving-picture show of the holes, or the test fit with the slice of dowel.

Wipe some glue within each hole and on the dowel, and and then slide the two pieces together. I recommend clamping the spindle forth the edge of your bench. In that way you can make certain that the repaired spindle is straight!