Screwed up screw holes

[Max]

More years ago than I can remember I came across a little kit for restoring screw holes. It was particularly handy for moving a strike plate for a door latch. The kit had a tapered bit to drill a hole that accepted a plug shaped like the sharpened end of a pencil. (it also included a pencil shaped piece of wood that could be sharpened in a pencil sharpener and used as a plug.) I've lost it, looked in all the catalogs I have and am beginning to wonder if I dreamed it. Anyone familiar with the device?

Max

[Marty]

I've never seen that kit, but one can do pretty much the same thing by drilling a hole with a brad point wood bit, and then gluing in a piece of dowel. =20 Marty

[Josepi]

Toothpicks and glue.

Max

[Max]

You're right, of course, and I've thought of that, even used that but I'm wondering if the kit is still available or if the market disappeared because everyone thought like you and me.

Max

[Norman Billingham]

You're not dreaming. I've still got one. It came from Garrett Wade on a visit to New York (I think Woodcraft Supply used to carry them too?). It works OK but the plug is end grain so not particularly strong. I tend to reach for a couple of matchsticks (or use a plastic wall plug).

Lee Valley does the kit:

[Max]

Max

[SonomaProducts.com]

WINNER!!!!!

[willshak]

Max wrote the following:

That looks weaker than a unsharpened dowel glued into a regularly drilled hole. You use the drills you already have and you don't need a pencil sharpener. You save $20 + shipping too.

[Max]

You're right, of course, and I've thought of that, even used that but I'm wondering if the kit is still available or if the market disappeared because everyone thought like you and me.

Max

[John Grossbohlin]

I'm thinking that in theory you are getting a little close to a long-grain to long-grain glue joint with this tool but there is still the issue of having end grain into which to drive screws... This sort of suggests to me that a flat bottom hole with plugs is the strongest hole fixer as you'd have a long-grain to long-grain glue joint on the bottom and would be screwing into long grain.

Let the theory debate being!

John

[Lew Hodgett]

-------------------------------- I'll see your tootyhpicks and glue and raise you (ALL IN) an epoxy fairing putty repair.

Now that's the winner.

Lew

[Zz Yzx]

What's the advantage of the tapered hole/plug? Seems to me a straight hole/plug would work as well or better. I ask in ernest.

-Zz

[Lew Hodgett]

-------------------------------- Tapered plug is just another form of an inclined plane.

The further you drive a tapered plug into a tapered hole, the tighter the fit.

The tighter the fit, the better the glue joint.

Lew

[Zz Yzx]

Hmmmmm.... The surface area of the cone may be a bit larger than that for the cylinder. And the angle may provide a bit more long grain - long grain glue surface (I'm not sure this would be significant if the hole is drilled into the flat side of a flat-sawn board). It seems that effect would be small.

Also, driving the cone too far could force the glue out, weakening the fix.

There are bits that cut plugs perpendicular to the long grain:

[CW]

Lee Valley.

[Josepi]

I have often thought about using epoxy but always feared the scrwws would not be able to penetrate it after hardening.

Putting the screws in before the epoxy hardens, my thoughts were I would never be able to get them out, if needed.

What have your experiences been? Never needed to remove the scrwws, yet?...LOL

I'll see your tootyhpicks and glue and raise you (ALL IN) an epoxy fairing putty repair.

Now that's the winner.

Lew

"S> Toothpicks and glue.

--------------------------------

[ChairMan]

In news:N%8mo.11684$ [e-mail], Josepi spewed forth:

I find that a wooden skewer works as well and is a bit quicker. YMMV

[SonomaProducts.com]

I have fallen in love with System Three T-88 structural epoxy. It sands and drills like hardwood and you can easily drop a screw in it with a pilot hole. I did a major repair to a pine blanket chest I built 20 years ago and had epoxy in cracks, filling missing chunks and all over the area with hinges attached and it went back together like it was all wood.

I like the color it dries, it looks like pine sap and blends well with aged pine. I also repaired a badly designed oak side table and it blended well with the typical red oak orangish brown stain too.

Single blown out screw hole still gets tooth;picks, but maybe all use epoxy with the picks.

[Larry Jaques]

Yeah, they were OK, but they didn't work any better than doweling.

I keep a length of 1/4" dowel in the truck and use that when I need to repair a client jamb. 1/4" drill, spot of TiteBond II, tap it in, flushcut it, drill a new screwhole, insert screw. 10 minutes for a permanent, professional fix.

For those clients who wish me to think of them in a Chinese curse, I keep a short length of 3/8" dowel in the truck, too.

They're the type who think "Maybe a couple thousand more revolutions with my Crapsman drill and a 3" drywall screw will make it catch."

-- Some people hear voices. Some see invisible people. Others have no imagination whatsoever.

[Gerald Ross]

I think it is not so much the tapered plug as the pointed reamer that will follow a screw-hole much easier than a drill bit. I think a drill bit with a conical tip would have been more ideal but harder to make.