I’m new to woodworking and have a question about a table restoration project. This old table’s legs are held on by the use of double ended screws. One end is for being driven into the wood of the leg. The other is machined for a nut that is bolted onto a diagonal brace in each of the table’s corners. Over time one of the legs’ hole for the wood screw portion has worked to be very loose. My thought was to drill a 1 inch hole with a forstner(?) bit, insert a 1 inch oak dowel, drill a hole for the screw and put the leg back on. But after I drilled a test hole in a piece of 2 x 4 and tried the dowel I found the dowel to be ever so slightly smaller than the hole. Enough smaller that I would be concerned about gluing it up. In a class a woodworking teacher said you could use paper to make up for small differences and the glue up will be strong as ever. True? I tried the next bit down but it is too small. What should I do?
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Replies
A paper shim is probably strong enough in this situation, but it's going to be messy to deal with. I would use a drill bit that's slightly smaller than the dowel (1" seems much bigger than necessary, by the way) and then sand the dowel down to fit. Cut a lengthwise groove in the dowel; this will release any trapped air as you slide the dowel into its hole.
-Steve
Epoxy glue will fill a pretty wide gap and is recommended by many experts when you have a loose fit. If the gap is only the width of a piece of paper (.0035"), then epoxy should hold the plug just fine.
There's another consideration in this sort of repair. In table as originally set up, the screw into the leg is into edge grain. If you make a dowel insert aroung the old hole, you will be inserting the screw into end grain, which generally doesn't have as much holding power as edge grain.
That leads to a suggestion that instead of filling a hole with a dowel, you use a plug cutter to make the insert. You can likely find a good fitting combination of plug and drill.
"In table as originally set up, the screw into the leg is into edge grain."
I had considered that, but from the description I had come to the conclusion that the screw was threaded into the end of the leg (which would help explain why it loosened over time).
-Steve
First, thanks to you all for responding. This is a great resource and a community of friends. Thanks. The screw actually goes into the side corner of the leg. The corner is cut so that there is a flat surface that the screw can be driven into. It is true that if I used a dowell I will be driving it into end grain. Should this be my excuse to buy a plug bit? I'm not even sure if that's what it is called...
Thanks
Bill
Okay, if the screw does go into side grain, then you definitely want to use a plug whose grain direction matches that of the surrounding wood. You'll need a deep-cutting plug cutter, such as these made by Lee Valley:
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=42292&cat=1,180,42288
You do want a snug fit, though, so you may need to drill slightly undersize and adjust the plug to fit. (The tapered plug cutters that Lee Valley sells would be ideal, except that they don't cut very deep.)
Alternatively, you could use a router or tablesaw or whatever to cut a deep groove into the leg, and glue in a block, rather than a round plug (see the attached sketch). The advantage is that it's easier to get a good tight fit where it counts.
-Steve
Thanks again very much.
OK, you convinced me. No short cuts. I will think about the plug vs. block solution and use one. By the way, your sketch looks just like the leg.
Bill
I once had a Teak table with the connection with the screw on the side of the leg. That's why that came to mind. (It's still going strong in my sons apartment fortunately without needing repair.)
Howdy,
Personally, I would ditch the drill/plug/re-drill idea in favor of matchsticks and glue. The double-ended screw thingy is sometimes called a "hanger bolt" and yours is probably 5/16" diameter (maybe 1/4").
Fill the hole with a few matchsticks or toothpicks or a couple of golf tees even, liberally drizzled with wood glue. (You could even pour a little glue in the exisitng hole if you'd like.) This is the messy part (but fun!). They don't have to be too tightly packed in there. Keep putting in wood slivers until finger pressure can't fit any more in.
Then, go ahead and drive the lag screw portion of the hanger bolt into the table leg. The screw action will mash the wood and glue tightly together and agains the sides of the too-big hole. You should feel some resistance as you drive the screw; if it's too tight, take a needle nosed pliers and remove ONE piece of messy wood from the hole, then try to drive the screw in again.
Let it set over night and it'll be good as new.
Yitz
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