Misaligned holes - Fill and re-drill?

[Will Mullendore]

I’m covering up a bad design choice and ended up with two very slightly misaligned holes. I want to run a 1.0” aluminum tube through this so the holes need to be concentric. The top plate is 3/8” thick, the lower is 1.5” thick. Both holes are 1.0”.

I could use 1.25” tubing if needed and make the holes larger, but would it be easier to glue in a 1” dowel in the lower section and re-drill using the upper plate as a guide for centering? I’m not sure a poplar dowel in this purpleheart would keep the drill running true with such a small misalignment.

[Lee Schierer]

Making both holes 1-1/4 would be more work and harder than just plugging the bottom hole. Filling the hole with a dowel means you would be boring the new hole into end grain.

I would fill the bottom hole with wood and use a bit from the top to bore an aligned hole from the top through the bottom piece. One inch size plug cutters are pretty inexpensive, so you could make plugs from your scrap purpleheart to fill the bottom hole. You could probably get away with a cheap plug cutter bit for cutting few plugs that would be needed. If you select the piece of scrap with similar gran and color and align the grain when the plus is inserted you would really have to look to locate the patch. No casual observer is likely to see the little piece that remains after the new hole is bored.

[Will Mullendore]

This portion will be completely hidden. Is there any risk in drilling through end grain on a poplar dowel? I can make a purpleheart plug if that’s the best case, but if this won’t be seen, is there any issue going with a pillar dowel?

[Lee Schierer]

This portion will be completely hidden. Is there any risk in drilling through end grain on a poplar dowel? I can make a purpleheart plug if that’s the best case, but if this won’t be seen, is there any issue going with a pillar dowel?

Boring into end grain is harder than boring through a board across the grain. Poplar is rather soft compared to purpleheart, so the bit may tend to follow the poplar instead of cutting the thin slide of purpleheart than needs to be removed. Maybe try it on some scrap before drilling the pieces you want to keep.

[Will Mullendore]

Thanks for the advice, Lee. Sounds like a good excuse to pick up a 1” plug cutter and try again.

Your signature reminded me to renew my annual contribution to SawmillCreek