Wood filler

[transatlantic]

My joints are getting better, but they're still a little gappy, so I use a wood filler I picked up from Wilko to fill them in. Whilst it seems to work ok for deep gaps, I find it doesn't work so well for small gaps that are less than a mm deep, it tends to just come off as its so brittle, or crack due to the vibration of my sander and then fall off.

Are there better quality fillers that I should be using?

I know about the dust/glue mixture, but if there is a filler that is just as good, then I'd rather the convenience of something off the shelf.

 

[NazNomad]

The sawdust & glue trick will always match your wood colour though?

 

[ColeyS1]

My joints are getting better, but they're still a little gappy, so I use a wood filler I picked up from Wilko to fill them in. Whilst it seems to work ok for deep gaps, I find it doesn't work so well for small gaps that are less than a mm deep, it tends to just come off as its so brittle, or crack due to the vibration of my sander and then fall off.

Are there better quality fillers that I should be using?

I know about the dust/glue mixture, but if there is a filler that is just as good, then I'd rather the convenience of something off the shelf.

Brummers

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[adidat]

I think for less than 1mm I would be trying to plane or sand the issue out. As no filler is gonna stay in that for long.

I tend to use ronshield 2 part stuff if painting, find the White color stuff is better than the pine colour btw!

Adidat

 

[Mr T]

Liberon wax filler sticks are good and will hold in the smallest gap. Can be difficult getting a match, they coime in hundred of different tones.

Chris

 

[custard]

The sawdust & glue trick will always match your wood colour though?

You'd think that's be the case but sawdust and glue usually turns out much darker than the surrounding wood. The sawdust will get jumbled up so there'll be lots of what is effectively end grain sawdust in the mix, and end grain saturated with finish (or even glue) always looks darker than long grain. For many repair jobs you can still get away with this as you often aim to patch with a darker tone that mimics a knot or a resin pocket, but for gappy joints sawdust and glue might not help.

The fix really depends on the joint itself. For a mortice and tenon joint with a gappy shoulder the real solution is some careful work with a shoulder plane to remove the high spot and improve the fit. For a dovetail joint a thin sliver of matching timber forced into the gap can help, as can "peening" over the end grain on either the tails or the pins with careful hammer blows to expand the fibres and take up the gaps.

It's worth remembering that some of the very finest furniture makers make it a point of principle never, ever to patch. They'll still have the occasional small gap but they take the view an honest gap is as much a legitimate part of their furniture as a piston fit drawer. If you ever visit the Barnsley Workshops there's a great example on permanent display, a small Walnut bookcase that Edward Barnsley made for his wife, the story goes he ran short of timber and had to splice two pieces together to complete a run of moulding. The splice is far from invisible, but rather than detracting from the piece it seems to actually add to it.

 

[custard]

If you're going to use wax or shellac filler sticks it's best to complete the job in stages using two or three different colours. In almost every case that'll deliver a far more convincing repair. However, filler sticks work best for fixing damage or for natural flaws like dead knots or cigarette burns, around the straight line of a joint they often draw attention to the repair and make the original gap look worse!

Sometimes I'll be faced with fine Ebony or Blackwood inlay lines with an imperfect mitre, that's a joint fault and the way I usually deal with it is a drop of five minute epoxy (the crystal clear kind not the slightly yellow version), no sawdust or any other filler, just the epoxy. Once the surface has been flushed back it's completely invisible to even the closest scrutiny. I suspect a lot of the benefit comes from simply providing a perfectly flush surface that don't attract the eye like a pinpoint dimple would, plus the crystal clear epoxy seems to refract the precise colour and tone of the surrounding inlay lines, making the repair impossible to spot.

 

[Dan j]

Instead of sawdust and glue you can buy a parquet floor gap filling product. Lecol 7500 is one I've used. There's others available.
It makes a good colour match. Not as dark as glue, and you can mix it quite thinly for small gaps. The finer your sawdust the better.
Or if its a split knot or a grain defect just clear epoxy.

 

[Mr T]

When using the wax filler sticks it's best to leave the filling until after the first coat of fiinish has been applied. If you match to the unfinished wood the filler will appear lighter once the wood has drakened with the finish.

I agree with Custard about mixing glue and sawdust, it's often suggested as a filler, but I tried it a few times many yeras ago without much success fror the reasons Custard suggests.

Chris