Hi All
I have drilled some lovely neat counter sunk holes on the wrong side of some stock between 3/4 and 1" thick -a hardwood, silver ash. As that side will be hidden, I'd like to just flip it over and countersink the other side, but I am worried about losing so much wood at the joint. Can I fill these blunderholes with something like epoxy resin glue and go ahead? Or would something else be better? As I am an Aussie, generics rather than brands would help enormously.
TIA
Mekon
I'd make this repair as a two (2) step process.
1) Mix up some laminating epoxy and apply to incorrect C'Sinks with a small throw away brush, say a plumber's acid brush.Just make sure everything is wet out.
Allow to kick and cure for about 12 hours.
2) Mix up some epoxy fairing putty using micro-balloons to thicken the epoxy.Fill C'Sinks proud using a throw away stick like a paint mixing stick.
Allow to kick and cure at least 48 hours, then sand flat with say 100 grit.
You're good to go.
BTDT, so many times I lost count.
Have fun.
Lew
Some epoxies will work well, but not all epoxies are strong as gap fillers, so generic brands might not do what you need. I'd cut a plug to fit the countersink, epoxy it in, and then drill the other side after the epoxy cures.
Scott
On the cabinet above my microwave I have 1" holes (for blum hindges) drilled on three edges of one of the doors. Obviously only one set of holes got hindges. My plan was to plug the others with some hardwood at some point. It has been about a year since I installed that door and have not gotten around to it yet....probably never will.
If your holes are small enough, plug cutters can usually be had for pretty cheap. You may just have to redrill the holes with a fostner bit to get a good plug fit.
Mark
"Mekon" wrote
Is there any way you can drill a hole and fill it with a solid plug cut from the same wood? I used to do it all the time with plug cutters. This may not be big enough though.
Anyway, some kind of wood plug would be the way I would go on this. And remember, a sign of a good craftperson is the ability to cover up your mistakes.
How much cross section would you lose? The unwanted countersinks will be forever hidden. The amount of cross sectional area and strength lost is probably minimal. What are we talking about? A #6 or #8 countersink? Unless it's a deep counterbore, that's no more than about .02 square inches of cross section for a #6 or .04 for a #8.
I don't know the narrowest width of the piece through the hole, but if it's greater than about 1/2 inch, the strength reduction will be less than 10% in 3/4 to 1 inch stock. Flip it over and don't worry about it.
Tom Veatch Wichita, KS USA
Mekon, I missed your original post, so I'm responding via Lew.
Often when screwing two pieces of wood together, the screw raises a small curl where the screw first enters. With no place to go, it can keep the two pieces from fitting tightly. To prevent this, I always countersink both sides.
You only THOUGHT you made a blunder :-).
Note: the countersink on the back side doesn't need to be as much as the one on the front. Just enough to receive the curl.
A: Don't worry about them, unless you're using the ash to hold up a wall or something... How much strength (thickness) is needed at the joints?
B: If you want piece of mind, use a plug cutter or forstner bit to cut out a section slightly larger than your countersink and put a plug in the hole.. No need to make it a precision or tight fit, it's really just a spacer to prevent the screw from going through your "correct" countersink and going through the board.. YMWV
mac
Please remove splinters before emailing
Thanks all. As it happenned the dowels (or is it dowells? Both look wrong.) used elsewhere in the project were an exact match for the countersunk holes. So I just cut off eight small sections glued and drilled and it was fixed.
I am about to post a progress pic in binaries if you would like a squiz.
Thanks again
Mekon
Lew, you're great. I read the OP and saw that your reply was next. Before I even opened it, I was almost sure I could predict what you'd say. Sure enough, there it was - epoxy and the magic balloons.
And damnit all, they work. Very well
Tanus
Thank you.
Just trying to keep things simple.
IMHO, learning to use epoxy to your advantage is a very powerful arrow in your quiver of woodworking tricks.
You don't sweat screw-ups any more since epoxy and micro-balloons will repair almost any mistake.
Lew
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