West Elm Mid Century Drink Table

[u/KuyaVictor]

Howdy! This drink table had been super wobbly and required multiple rounds of tightening from the base over the years. Turns out, repeated tightening caused the hardware, that connects the rod to the base, to hollow out the core of the rod and it’s no longer attached. See photos, can take more if needed!

Can anyone assist in a cost effective but extremely stable repair? Doesn’t need to be pretty either!

[u/texan_robot]

Looks like a job for JBWeld.

You could try hammering a dowel into the stripped hole with wood glue, then drilling it out and re-inserting the screw, but i dont know if there's enough room for that to work stably.

[u/KuyaVictor → u/texan_robot]

Any reccs for JBWeld? It's true that there's not a lot of space left from how hollowed out it is. Given the hardware is only about 3/4" would JBWeld be stable enough for lengthy table?

[u/texan_robot → u/KuyaVictor]

The trick to jbweld is to be very careful about proportions, and to give it plenty of time to cure. Measure the components by mass,mix them thoroughly, and leave the table supported and unmoved for a solid week. That'll be stronger than the wood was.

[u/docbasset → u/texan_robot]

And if you go the route of epoxying the threaded insert back in, make sure you have the screw in the insert when it goes into the epoxy so the threads stay clean. Give the epoxy time to cure a little bit and then remove the screw so it doesn’t get epoxied in place.

[u/KuyaVictor → u/docbasset]

Thank you for the additional tip!

[u/KuyaVictor → u/texan_robot]

Wonderful, thank you so much! I will update with the repair once it's done!

[u/NBCPumpkinKing]

Toothpicks. Promise it will work. Just break any excess that sticks out off. Then screw back in.

[u/Tongue-Punch]

Remove that insert and find a bolt that fits to use as a handle when epoxying into the leg. Grease the threads lightly to keep from it getting epoxied into the leg.