Making dowels/plug for a hole repair?

[Dissolve]

I have two holes which I've decided are too far off centre for my liking, I've decided to plug them and re-drill them correctly. The repair will be under a translucent finish but might be covered in the end, so this just seems like good practise to make it as seamless as possible

The holes are currently 4mm in diameter, but I'm not sure if it is more sensible to drill them out to 5/6mm before starting the repair? It seems making the plugs slightly larger may be easier in the long run?

The repair is pretty much entirely cosmetic, so the plugs/dowel I make will need to be made from the same timber, and obviously needs to match the grain once inserted/sanded flush. All the information I can find on making dowel for repairs involved hammering a roughly shaped, strain grained piece of stock through hardened steel holes, but I doubt this would work very well once the material is rotated to have the side grain as the face of my plug/dowel.

I have a belt sander and a bandsaw, so I can get close by ripping some square timber and sanding/planing my way close to cylindrical,I just wondered if anyone has a tip or two on making plugs for good looking repairs?

(the holes are only being shifted .5mm or so, and I've encountered stripped screw holes in wood many a time that I've always repaired using off the shelf dowel where the looks aren't important, so it seems like time to practise making plugs for aesthetically pleasing repairs!) :lol:

 

[AndyT]

If you want to fill a hole with wood with the grain sideways on, you don't need a dowel, you need a plug. You cut them out from a piece of matching wood, using a plug cutter - a sort of hollow drill bit. They normally need a drill press, or at least a drill stand, to stop them wandering about before they cut. The normal use is to plug screw holes, so expect about 10mm diameter, not 4 or 5.

 

[nathandavies]

+1

trend do the matching sets, worth getting a half decent one in my humble opinion.

nathan

 

[Dissolve]

Thanks, I've seen plug cutters in larger diameters as mentioned but I was wondering if there was a hand tool savvy trick to plugging smaller holes.

Not to worry I'll weigh up the options are possibly use a dowel for the smaller diameter or open up the holes and make a small plug by hand

 

[Jacob]

The hand tool trick is to whittle a tapered plug across the grain from a thin board. Doesn't need to be thick - it only has to close the hole not fill it. Needs very sharp knife and/or chisel.
Or better still - cut the hole to make it wider and insert a "butterfly", which helps hide the repair.

 

[foxhunter]

Send me a PM with what you want and a lump of wood you want to use as plugs. I have the Veritas taper plug cutter set (6,8,10mm) and a few Axminster larger plug cutters. But you will need Forstner bits to make the holes.

Let me know if I can help.

Brian

 

[steadyeddie]

My old foreman used to have a piece of fairly thick angle iron under his bench with various sized holes in it. To make a custom sized plug, you just taper the end of a suitable piece of timber ( this needs to be cut square just a bit bigger than the hole it's going through) place it in the required hole and hammer it through. The wood goes in square & comes out the other side round. Then cut it to length and Bobs your uncle.

Dave

 

[mrpercysnodgrass]

My old foreman used to have a piece of fairly thick angle iron under his bench with various sized holes in it. To make a custom sized plug, you just taper the end of a suitable piece of timber ( this needs to be cut square just a bit bigger than the hole it's going through) place it in the required hole and hammer it through. The wood goes in square & comes out the other side round. Then cut it to length and Bobs your uncle.]

The trouble with this method is it will give you end grain which will not match the long grain the plug is going into.
Brian's generous offer is too good to refuse, if I were you Dissolve I would take him up on it.