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I've been working on the doors - getting them ready for paint. While the wood is good shape, the holes for many of the wood screws is in bad shape. I'm wondering how the best way is to fix them. I thought of longer screws which should work for some of them, but the others present a challenge, which I figured could be solved by drilling out the hole and gluing in a wood dowel or maybe by drilling out the hole and screwing in a brass threaded insert.

Any and all opinions would be gladly appreciated.

Don't know how well it would work in your application but my Dad, who was a high school wood shop teacher, often used to put a little glue on a wooden golf tee and drive it into the oversized hole. After the glue set he just cut off the protruding section, and redrilled appropriately.

Can you still get wooden golf tees?

Can you still get wooden golf tees?
YES - I use them to plug rubber vacuum lines.

Quote:

I agree. That would work however just some good carpenters glue and a hardwood dowel from Orchard Supply would work as well. It is not usually necessary to completely fill the hole with new wood. By no means use longer screws. Longer screws are not necessary. Also a note about the screws: Good quality replacement screws are no longer available. All are inferior copies from China and other great places. Tumble your screws in a rock tumbler for one or two days with kerosene. You will be amazed how beautiful they will be. They will look new.

A cheap trick I used to fix a screw when it pulls out of the top of a door hinge in the house is this. Grab a couple of wooden toothpick, dip one at a time in glue and stick them in the hole. Fill up the hole with them and then break off the extra length of the toothpicks. Let the glue dry, then reinstall the screw.

Work like a charm and never have had to refix one after the fact.

What I did was buy a selection of wood dowels at a hardware store. Diameters should be small enough to fit in the screw holes or slightly larger. With a nearby belt or disk sander make a small taper on the tip of the dowel to approximate the size of the wood screw. Then stick the dowel in the hole and mark where the surface is. Cut off the dowel end to protrude about 1/8 inch above the surface when loosely installed. Mix up some 2-part 5-minute epoxy and put some on the outside of the dowel. before it sets up shove the dowel in the hole and tap it flush with the surface with a small hammer. After it sets up drill a new screw hole. This works every time and the epoxy is stronger than the original wood.
Th tooth pick and the golf tee suggestions are similar, but the wood is different hardness.

Thanks To All:

A lot of good suggestions with both do's and don't. I think that I'll try using a tapped wood dowel with epoxy or TiteBond III. I really like the idea about the tumbler for cleaning up the screws.

Woodcraft sells packages of "stepped" dowels that are great for filling worn holes. Just coat them in glue and drive them in with a few taps of a hammer. Because they are stepped (tapered in steps) they fit nicely into tapered wood screw holes, whereas a regular dowel is either too large for the bottom of the hole or too small for the outer part of the hole.

Jim Wayman
640 Phaeton.

Jim, thats neat. Never seen those before.

Jim,

Thanks for the information. I was going to use my belt sander to taper a wood dowel, but this will make it much easier. I may drive up to Ventura today or tomorrow and get a package along with a tapered bit to cleanup those holes that are really in bad shape.