With the table stronger than ever and returned, I started on a quick bed post repair which I truly enjoyed. It didn’t take long to turn this project around. I used a lathe to create a new pin in an old mahogany finial.

The gallery of photos shows how I step by step fixed a broken dowel which was part of the original turned finial.

• I cut off the broken peg flush with the finial base and also removed the end broken off in the bed post.

• Using a block of walnut stock – (Sorry, I know it’s a mahogany bed but walnut was on hand) I turned a blank peg larger than the 3/4″ peg diameter.

• Into the new peg blank, about 1″ thick, I cut down a length to the 3/4″ thickness and chopped off my replacement dowel.

• I inserted the 3/4″ end with glue into the finial.

• Centering the old finial, whose chuck marks easily aligned on the lathe, I spun the whole assembly.

• Cutting the peg to 3/4″ while spinning, allowed for a precisely centered peg.

“We need new tiles in our bathroom. When we shower, water leaks through the floor.”

This past winter I arrived at two separate homes to find very similar situations. Both are old homes with very nice original tiles installed on thick mortar backing. Though anything is possible, the repair budget for these middle class homes likely wouldn’t afford same-quality replacement work.

Since my forté is restoration, and in both situations there was no structural damage to the wood behind, I opted to restore the original work instead of replace it. In both bathrooms, layer upon layer of caulking, upon layer of disgusting old caulk combined with crumbling grout made these showers look gross but seeing beyond the layers of silicon and stained grout lines to tiles that were still in great condition I chose restoration of the original. I love the old basket-weave tile floor and appreciate the style of the old work. (Sometimes not so much a fan of the colors…)

It’s fairly labor intensive to remove all the grout and decades of caulk but in the end the bathrooms do look freshly restored and the homeowners are shocked at the transformation.

The steps for repairing the window can be viewed in the gallery of images below.

• Removing broken side of frame
• Measure details of existing
• Create a blank rail from new mahogany stock
• Mill blank on router table, using slice of old piece as pattern
• Mortise for existing tenons
• Clean tenons of old glue and glazing
• Fit, glue and clamp
• Create and apply new mahogany stop to retain glass
• Added 1/2″ to top of this storm, ‘plane-to-fit’ exact size of opening later.

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