How To Repair Table Legs When The Metal Hardware Breaks

Many coffee tables and end tables with turned legs are attached with metal hardware.  Dragging that table across the carpet can sometimes put enough stress on the legs and cause that metal hardware to crack and the legs to fall off.  Rather than throw the entire table away, here are detailed instructions on how to repair table legs when the metal hardware breaks.

 

Repairing The Metal Hardware on a Table Leg

Too often our society throws away items when they tear or break rather than perform the small amount of work required to repair and re-use them.  From clothing… to electronics… to furniture.

We throw away far too much.

Instead, let’s make a concerted effort to repair just a few things in our homes this week, rather than throw them away and buy new.  In doing so, you’ll save money, help save the earth, and teach your children the valuable lesson of waste-not, want-not.

 

 

In an earlier post, I showed you a traditional coffee and end tables with turned legs that I repaired and refinished.  Both were beautiful pieces, each with just a few surface scratches that were easily sanded out and re-stained.

Both tables, however, had the same issue.  The metal hardware that attached the turned legs to the tabletop had completely cracked and needed to be replaced.

 

Metal Table Leg Hardware

You can see in the image (above) that there’s a threaded hanger bolt screwed into the table leg (left).  That leg would then screw into the table base which has a threaded metal plate (right).  While the metal plate shown here is intact, the three other plates on this table were all cracked. You can see that one of the cracked plates is still attached to the table leg bolt (left).

In some instances the threaded hanger bolt will be bent and need to be replaced.  If this is the case, simply unscrew the threaded bolt with a  pair of pliers and screw in a replacement bolt like those found HERE.

To replace the cracked metal plates, we purchased four new Leg Daddy T-plates on Amazon.  THESE T-plates come with the hanger bolts.  I didn’t need to remove the old plates. These new T-plates over-lapped the circle opening so they could then be screwed directly into the wood surrounding it.

 

When you replace these metal plates, be sure to replace them on all four legs so that the table is properly leveled.

 

Once the metal plate is screwed into place, screw the table leg with the threaded bolt already in it into the center opening of the T-plate.

These tables remind of the ones my sister has from Pottery Barn.  They’re gorgeous and I’m so glad I was able to save them from the trash truck.  They will serve a new home well for many, many years.

So the next time you have a broken table leg, think twice before you throw away the entire table.  Repairing it could be as simple as replacing a few metal T-plates.