HOW TO... FIX A WOBBLY TABLE

HAS YOUR VAN table become wobbly over time? Turn it over and see if loose leg-fixing screws are the problem. Start by firmly but gently retightening them.

If, like mine, your table is a chipboard core with melamine laminate faces, you may find the screws just rotate in their holes, so you cannot easily replace the screws with longer or fatter ones.

The solution is to remove the screw-on legs and use pieces of matchstick with a coating of PVA wood glue to fill the holes.

Not only will this reduce the hole size, it will also provide a much better grip for the original self-tapping fixing screws.

You can cut two filling pieces from each match, which must then have one side tapered with a craft knife before coating with glue and partially inserting into the hole. Partially fit the second tapered match before very gently tapping them both into place with a small hammer. You must take care to avoid pushing down on the melamine top face.

Although this will probably provide an excellent fixing, I also applied powerful double-sided tape to the back of the leg fixing plate before it was refitted.

The tale of the tape

This was not your common or garden high-street product, but something described on the internet as ‘High Performance Acrylic Foam Tape’, used in the automotive trade. A quick rub over both surfaces using meths will remove any grease before the tape is applied.

After removing the protective film from the tape, position the plate over the screw-holes.

The end result was a very firm fixing, as the tape complements the fixing screws.