Some months ago I bought a repro of something I've always wanted, an Eames Lounge Chair. Whilst I could have had the original, I have a 1.5 year old boy who climbs everything and who paints milk and crumbs on everything. I figured better to save the money and frustration of ruined premium leather, and buy a less expensive repro called the "Eaze Lounge Chair" from LexMod instead. The company does not make the furniture but simply brokers between US buyers (such as Amazon) and Chinese factories instead. This is not a bad business idea at all, here's a similar unit with a unit cost of $295 USD — that is, unless unit quality is bad and your customers feel bad.
Well, as usual, I was wrong. The cabinet maker who had reviewed the repro as unsound on Amazon.com was dead right. After less than 3 months the chair gave a tremendous groan and sound of tearing wood one day, and the right side of the back section slumped down. Sitting in the chair was done. I'm not one to give up easily however. After contacting the company, thinking about the potential repair, and figuring what effort/cost it would take to re-pack and ship it back, I repaired it myself.
This blog then, is the procedure of that repair. I'm quite handy, and have made some strong furniture before although I'm not a trained cabinet maker, and I enjoyed this work and am proud of the results, but I believe most people would be at a loss as to what to do.
1. This angle iron is supposed to be approximately flush with the plywood. Do I see wood splinters in there in the dark opening? This doesn't look good.
2. Disassembled, the problem immediately became clear. A thin soft steel plate is attached to the inside of the chair base (and back) section, with nothing but a matrix of tiny wood screws (#6 or #7 x 3/8" length was my guess). The back section bolts to these steel plates at 4 points (2 each plate) with a sturdy piece of angle iron. But between the angle iron and the wood base and back sections is nothing more than about 12 overly small, shallow, over-tightened wood screws in cheap soft plywood (it has a nice external veneer but is otherwise not dense). Every screw on the right side had ripped straight out. A view of the left side in the third pic above shows what it might have looked like when it left the Chinese factory.
3. Both soft steel plates had also deformed on the right side. Enter construction adhesive between the plates and the plywood, and small C-clamps which flattened the plates right out — they are quite soft steel apparently.
4. After adhering and clamping, enter both #10 x 1/2" and #8 x 1/2" wood screws, that I trimmed to 3/8" length with a Dremel. I also then flattened the much larger #10 screw heads with the Dremel after screwing them home. The first picture here shows nicely where the final original screw gave way and tore through the plywood base as the steel plate and thus the right side back section detached completely from the base section.
5. Then enter a 3/8" drill bit. I used this to drill out the old threaded hole in the steel plate, and also drill all the way clear through the outside veneer. The new connector bolts will go right through both.
6. Finally, reassembly with some 1/4" x #20 thread cabinet connector bolts and connector cap nuts (called "furniture connector bolts" by Hillman, part 57141-G*) in antique bronze, which match the external veneer nicely. Yes, I had the angle iron incorrectly facing inwards when I first reassembled the chair in the second photo, later flipped correctly when reattaching the padded arms. I actually needed shorter bolts in the end so replaced the bolts in the photo with 1/4" x #20 x 1/2" length hi-tensile steel bolts. The connector cap nuts' outside diameter is 23/64" and so they run clear through into the steel plate through the new 3/8" hole, lending additional stability.
I do not believe the chair will fall apart again soon; even though I weigh 180lbs when I sit it is now rock-solid. Although I still have my "Eames" Lounge Chair for about $900, the less handy and experienced among you would be stymied by this chair, as I was for a while, and I do not recommend anybody purchase it.
As for which furniture I now recommend you buy; original or repro? Neither, really. You should probably buy what my smart friends with kids all do — everything Ikea until the kids are at least 10. And by then you probably won't be able to afford an original Eames so your choices will be a lot simpler. ;)