Fixing stripped screw holes

[Cherryville Chuck]

The easiest way to fix a stripped screw hole is to glue some tooth picks or slivers cut from a solid piece of wood and glued into the hole. Trim flush when the glue dries. You can use the trick to move a hole slightly too such as when you might want to move a door hinge slightly to even the gap around a cabinet door. If you fill the hole with glued toothpicks or slivers and re drive the screw on the right side of the hole it will move the door to the right maybe a 1/16" and to the left is vice versa. So if you move the bottom hinge one way and the top one the other you can make quite a difference in the way it hangs.

[Nickp]

My preferred way also...same thing with stripped holes in the fiberglass on the boat except I use epoxy.

[Bushwhacker]

My preferred way also...same thing with stripped holes in the fiberglass on the boat except I use epoxy.

I use toothpicks also but I have never glued them in. I can see how that may help hold the screw in its new home more securely. I may just start doing that. Thanks for the tip.

Bushwhacker

[Cherryville Chuck]

My preferred way also...same thing with stripped holes in the fiberglass on the boat except I use epoxy.

I use toothpicks also but I have never glued them in. I can see how that may help hold the screw in its new home more securely. I may just start doing that. Thanks for the tip.

Bushwhacker

You're welcome. The glue also helps toughen up the wood around the hole.

[tomp]

A little more sophisticated, but I've used this tapered drill/reamer and a old-time pencil sharpener for pointing the dowel rod to plug damaged/mislocated holes for many years - I think I bought the original reamer and a set of pre-glued wooden plugs from Lee Valley, but have had to replace the reamer once as it's kind of fragile - found the trick is to make sure that the hole is deep enough so that the tip of the reamer doesn't bottom in the bottom of the hole..

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I still have a couple of the original plugs kicking around (shown laying there), use them when I can find them, but it's way easier to just point the end of a length of dowel, glue and tap it into the reamed hole and then cut it off. Move on to the next hole.

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I had a lot of holes to plug when I remodeled the laundry room where two of the doors were directly hinged to the studs. Also had to make a jig to cut the hinge mortises in the jambs.

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[Cherryville Chuck]

Those did come from Lee Valley Tom. I have one of those too. If you can whittle a piece of any wood close to round you can stick that in the pencil sharpener and point the end so that it matches that taper tool. I've used that to mark the hour positions on a burl clock before so it has a few other uses besides just fixing screw holes.

[Cherryville Chuck]

You can use the toothpicks trick to fix stripped holes in particle board but if you need better holding power you can glue a 3/8 to 1/2" dowel and then screw into the solid wood of the dowel. I recommend drilling a pilot hole close to the same size as the diameter of the screw between the threads to keep from splitting the dowel.

[Herb Stoops]

I have that same setup from Lee Valley and I bought the pencil w/o lead from them at the same time You sharpen the pencil blank and glue it into the hole and it has the starter hole already in it. Lee valley doesn't carry them anymore last time I checked.

Herb

[tomp]

Those did come from Lee Valley Tom. I have one of those too. If you can whittle a piece of any wood close to round you can stick that in the pencil sharpener and point the end so that it matches that taper tool. I've used that to mark the hour positions on a burl clock before so it has a few other uses besides just fixing screw holes.

Chuck,

Thanks, something to keep in mind if you're looking for a specific wood species that's not available as a dowel (or the dowel is very expensive, as there are vendors that sell dowels in different (other than birch) materials - and usually for a premium price.

[tomp]

I have that same setup from Lee Valley and I bought the pencil w/o lead from them at the same time You sharpen the pencil blank and glue it into the hole and it has the starter hole already in it. Lee valley doesn't carry them anymore last time I checked.

Herb

Herb,

I've seen the blanks at LV, never bought them though as just a regular dowel is way cheaper. Plus, I didn't like the idea of the hole if I was relocating a screw - or plugging an unused hole as I'd have to putty up the hole. I keep a couple of pieces of 1/4" and 5/16" dowel lying around for repairs.

[Nickp]

And when you're lucky enough to have a broken screw head AND it needs to be moved a bit there's always these guys (in conjunction with appropriate sized dowels...they are available from different sources...

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/scre ... KvEALw_wcB#

[Cherryville Chuck]

And when you're lucky enough to have a broken screw head AND it needs to be moved a bit there's always these guys (in conjunction with appropriate sized dowels...they are available from different sources...

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/scre ... KvEALw_wcB#

Thanks for posting that Nick. I had heard of them but I haven't seen them up here and I didn't know what to call them to do a search. As it turns out Woodcraft has a store in Pelham, Alabama which is only around 10 miles from where my brother lives. I'm sure we've driven past it a few times when he needed something from the nearby HF store. Go HF, right Herb?

[Herb Stoops]

I have those too, and they are the slickest bits to remove those broken off HF quality screws that twist off. I found you had to make a jig to use them tho. Otherwise they walk all over the place getting them started. I drill a hole into a piece of scrap plywood and hold it over the place to drill and start the hole bit.

The reason I bought the Pencil blanks was to use them for hinges on my hidden hinge and wooden hinge boxes, trying to drill a hole through a dowel to use for wooden hinges can be frustrating.
Later in my life Rob Cosman came out with a slick tool that solved that problem.
https://robcosman.com/products/rob-cosm ... t-imperial

HErb