Filling Screw Hole

[Kenneth A Jones II]

Hello,

I am building a picture frame for a Christmas present. I am using red oak (milled from stair handrail) and padauka. Unfortunately, there are some screw holes from where the rail was attached to the wall. What is the best way to fill these holes? Due to timing I want to only use products that can be sourced from local big box stores. I plan to finish the frame with either wipe on poly or spray lacquer for a natural wood finish.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Dave Richards]

I doubt you'll be able to fill those and make them invisible. Any chance you can change the profile and take a little more off the surface?

[Wade Lippman]

Presumably that is on an exposed surface or you wouldn't be asking. Any filler will look terrible. Perhaps you could use a red oak filler and paint in the grain, but I've never tried that.

If I had to do that, I would cut the defect out and put a plug in. I have done that and can't actually find it now.

[Brian Henderson]

The only way to fix that is either to sand it down until it disappears or cut it out and glue in a piece of wood with matching grain. There aren't any fillers that are going to go on invisibly.

[Dimitrios Fradelakis]

Sawdust of the same species and some yellow wood glue. Drop a small amount of glue in and rub a decent amount of saw dust in. Let it thoroughly dry and sand it smooth. Try it on a test piece first to make sure it's to your liking.

FYI: http://www.woodworkersjournal.com/make-your-own-wood-filler/

I would use yellow wood glue and not CA.

[Bill Adamsen]

Chisel out the offending area with smooth transitions on the ends, and glue in an appropriately shaped (matching) piece with the same grain. Chisel and sand flush. Make sure the end grain doesn't "flare" to the surface. It will be hardly noticeable. This should be a reasonably quick fix ... and your best opportunity to get this done. I have done this successfully with White oak.

[Doug Garson]

I don't think you can make an invisible repair. If you can't sand it out as suggested above, how about using a Dremel to make the screw holes look like a pair of knots and fill them with epoxy either clear or mixed with sawdust?

[Kenneth A Jones II]

Everyone,

Thank you for the insanely fast and helpful responses. I will attempt the saw dust and glue method on a scrap piece first. If that method fails I will just chisel out the holes and plug them as Bill Adamsen has mentioned.

[william watts]

If it's not to late, changing the profile is the only sure way to correct this. The glue and saw dust trick may sound good but Dimitrios' link doesn't look right, any defects are still very visible. Any invisible defects are still invisible :) . Post some pictures of the glue/saw dust repair. It is often recommended, but with no pictures.

Bill

[Bill Adamsen]

I took that as a challenge and since I had to head to the shop to finish something anyway, I did this similar repair. Not Red oak, but another "similar" wood - American chestnut. Had I chosen the "filler" material better I do think it would have been difficult to distinguish the repair. Keep in mind I spent all of about five minutes on this "illustrative" example.

[william watts]

Wow! Bill A.'s got some skill. Very well done. For the glue/sawdust trick we should redefine invisible.

Bill

[Brian Henderson]

Everyone,

Thank you for the insanely fast and helpful responses. I will attempt the saw dust and glue method on a scrap piece first. If that method fails I will just chisel out the holes and plug them as Bill Adamsen has mentioned.

Unfortunately, dust and glue isn't going to work because the damage goes across grain lines and that lack of grain is going to be very obvious. You can go in with a thin artist brush and try to replicate the grain, assuming you get a really good color match on the repair. Good luck.

[Lee Schierer]

One more idea that might work. If the screws were inserted without drilling a pilot hole, the missing wood is still there, just compressed. Place several drops of distilled water in teh screw slots and let it set. In an hour add a few more drops of water. The compressed wood should swell up and much of the depression should disappear.

[Wade Lippman]

One more idea that might work. If the screws were inserted without drilling a pilot hole, the missing wood is still there, just compressed. Place several drops of distilled water in teh screw slots and let it set. In an hour add a few more drops of water. The compressed wood should swell up and much of the depression should disappear.


A fascinating idea. Have you actually gotten it to work?

[Lee Schierer]

A fascinating idea. Have you actually gotten it to work?

Yes! It also works with dents and corner dings

[Jim Sevey]

Mix saw dust into 5 minute 2 part epoxy and let it set up completely. You can pare it with a sharp chisel back down to level. When you finish it with poly the surrounding wood will assume the same surface sheen as the epoxy/wood repair.