Church Pew Repair

Another project with Al - repairing an old Church pew.  I acquired this church pew sometime in the early 2000s.  See this link from 2013 for my $10 fix.  

Some pictures from the 2013 project: 

Pictures from before the project started in 2024: 

I decided it was time to fix the pew up right and Al was willing to do a lot of the work and use his shop.  Below are some pictures of the process/project: 

STEP 1: Disassembly, sanding and gluing. 

STEP 2: Rounding the edges.  The pew had sharp edges, especially on the arm rest. 

STEP 3: Al made some brackets/bracing to solidify the pew when we reassemble. This will be more clear in final shots. 

STEP 4: Removing clamps, more sanding, new base. Al made some nice trim pieces to hide the defects on the bottom of the pew. 

STEP 5: Walnut Stain - we used the walnut stain left over from the ice box -> liquor cabinet project. 

FINAL WALKAROUND!

$10 Church Pew Repair

After sixteen years of Catholic School, I am qualified to repair a split church pew.

PHASE 1: Initial tools of the church pew repair trade: every C clamp I can find and some gorilla wood glue.

Here is what I began with, a pew with a great schism down the middle.  I wonder who was sitting there when God struck them down?

In addition to the big schism down the middle, the sides had "mini schisms."

This picture is a tad unclear, but this is the front half of the bench seat.  The white stain on the left of the bench is indeed bird poop.  Evidently someone's sister stored this bench outside for a few Chicago winters and summers. 

A view of the backrest...

First repair to mini schism, right armrest.  The white stuff is my gorilla wood glue, which was lavishly applied to all schisms.  

 Here is how the bench sat overnight on day one of the repair:

PHASE 2:

Time to use some 2 1/2" nails to pin some of my glue work together.  

Some more clamp work on the big schism.  Here the pew is tipped over on its front side in order for the clamps and the gift of gravity to hold the pieces together.  

Added some 90 degree and flat brackets to the bottom.  (I know this is not what a professional woodworker would do - but this is how you keep a pew repair under $10.01.)

A little more upright gluing and clamping...

Denouement: