How to secure finish cording in wood grove - occasional chair

[baileyuph]

The situation, typical to furniture people, is after stapling upholstery into a grove then a cording is glued to cover those staples.  Works fine, a finished effect easily accomplished with a glue absorbing fabric.

If the covering material is vinyl or leather, how would it be attached? 

Is there a thinner nose staple gun available where the staple could be shot at an angle through one side of the cord?

Grinding the nose of a staple gun to wedge the staple in from the side, through the cord selvage is not my preferred option.

I suppose therefore, there might be a very thin long nose staple gun used by factories?

Any comments or experience with this issue?

Doyle

[MinUph]

Doyle,
  I take it your talking double welt.
  Try hot glue first some vinyls and leathers will hold with hot glue. If this doesn't work there are other glues available although not easy to apply they do work. A plastic cement should work on vinyl but care is warranted when applying as it is thin and can run easily. Any form of staple will show an indentation at the very least. A narrow crown staple is used by some but it will show indentations also. Glue is your best bet just find one that works. Again try hot glue you might be surprised you might not.

[sofadoc]

  I take it your talking double welt.

He said "into a groove", so I think he's talking about single welt. But like Paul says, glue should work, especially in a groove. I don't remember having any trouble with hot glue on vinyl/leather into a groove.

[gene]

I staple at an angle into the slot with my regular pneumatic staple gun. This holds the vinyl and keeps the staple in the slot flush to the side of the slot so the single welt cord can be easily glued into the slot.

After I make the single welt cord, I cut the lip as close to the threads as I can. This really helps when gluing it in the slot. Too much welt cord lip and staples not flush in the slot are the main problem I see folks having with not being able to get a great finished look.

I test with hot melt glue, and if that works, I will use it. Otherwise, I use another glue that will work. I have had vinyls that I could easily pull off after using hot melt glue.

A really big problem with these types of furniture is getting all the staples out of the groove without chipping or scratching the finished wood. I found that my ice pick works great to raise up the staples and then I use my pliers to pull them out.

gene

[baileyuph]

The grove is only around the rails of the chair.  The factory stappled the velvet cord into the groove at an angle from the bottom side of the chair.  This way, the staples penetrated the 5/16 or 1/4 inch selvage and lodged in the top side of the groove, smooth and concealed.  It took precision stappling,  Looks as straight as if glued in.  This technique seems to parallel Gene's stapling technique to hold the fabric in the grove, it was used by the factory to hold the cord in place, no glue was used. 

That said, my challenge is to recover in leather, stappling into the groove.  Then fabricate the cord in matching leather with a selvage of about 1/4 th inch and staple as the factory did. 

Installation of the finish cord will go slow, first off it has to be sewn to fit with the ends enclosed. 

I marvel at the things that factorys do, especially knowing it is done with efficiency.

Hence, the challenge when one grows up.   ;)

Thanks guys,

Doyle 

[bobbin]

Thinking about pictures after reading Tapissier's comments on using pictures for his employees... .  I would really like to see some pictures because I'm not familiar enough with furniture to be able to picture what you're talking about.  And I would like to!

[kodydog]

Thinking about pictures after reading Tapissier's comments on using pictures for his employees... .  I would really like to see some pictures because I'm not familiar enough with furniture to be able to picture what you're talking about.  And I would like to!

Here's a good example of the welting Doyle is talking about. If you scroll down the page it shows some close up views of the chairs.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Councill-Cabot-Wrenn-tub-barrel-sheraton-guest-chairs-/390116554773?pt=US_Chairs&hash=item5ad4c23815

You can see where someone trimmed the welt too close and its starting to look raged around the edges

Where the inside back and outside back is attached to the finished wood there is a groove that the fabric is pressed into with the nose of the staple gun. Once the fabric is stapled around, the salvage is trimmed off with a razor. To hide the staples a welt is usually hot glued into the groove.

I've had problems in the past with vinyl and after experimenting with different glues found Super Glue to work.

Never had any problems with leather and hot glue.

[bobbin]

Thanks Kody.  I managed to miss this the other day and just stumbled across it.  I think I have a better idea what you're talking about now!