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I have a piece of furniture (a kind of chair) that seems to be made of bent laminated rails (if that's the right term). In a couple of curves the outer layers began splitting apart, as can be seen in the photo.

enter image description here

What would be the best way to fix this problem and stop further splitting, considering that the bends are under stress and will be flexing when the chair is used? Epoxy resin may not be flexible enough when cured. Are there other types of glue that might be used here?

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Your best bet would be to see if you can rough up the surface inside with a very thin file, and then apply some wood glue between the layers. Then, clamp the hell out of it and give it a day to cure. You can trim or sand off the excess, and you should be good to go.

If that fails, you can clean out the gap again, and use a 2-part epoxy. Loctite makes an inexpensive clear one that's pretty easy to squirt out and mix before you pack it in there. Epoxy will fix it for sure, but is a little harder than wood glue (which is very strong to begin with.)

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  • I think I need something that remains flexible when cured. Both wood glue and standard epoxy are rigid when cured, which I'm afraid might cause them to separate from the flexing wood layers. – mustaccio Jul 11 '16 at 15:00
  • The very best flexible adhesive I know of is E6000. It would do this job easily if it must be flexible. – Joe Makes Things Jul 11 '16 at 15:02
  • @mustaccio, re. "wood glue" (PVA?) and epoxy being rigid, even the yellow form of PVA which dries harder than the white is widely used for glueing up laminations that will see flexing in use. Ditto epoxy, which is heavily used in boatbuilding. Any doubts about this just look at how laminated bows are now made. But regardless of the glue chosen the main thing here would be to close up that gap which I'm not sure makes a good repair of this practical for the DIYer. – Graphus supports Monica Jul 15 '16 at 13:58
  • @Graphus thanks, the gap worries me as well. I'm thinking of filling it with glass/synthetic fibers then injecting glue or resin with a syringe. – mustaccio Jul 15 '16 at 14:07
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I am out on a limb here but what about glue for shoe soles? It is used for attaching to leather and rubber, both porous materials, and to bend over and over again.

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