Why would I shove toothpicks in a hole in my antique cupboard door, you may ask…
Well an old timer carpenter taught me this trick, and it really works fantastic! What’s the trick? Super simple…
When you have a loose screw, (probably should do a different treatment for the mental sense of a ‘loose screw’… I’m just talking the literal sense of loose screw today) due to the hole it’s screwed into being just a bit too big, like I did one day, I realized, when I opened the door of a very old cupboard I have in the breakfast room, and the top of the door fell off the cupboard, barely holding on by the bottom hinge! Oops, I would recommend fixing those loose cabinet and cupboard doors before it gets to that point, or it can lead to a lot bigger problems. (which is actually true with the mental sense as well, now that you mention it) I’m lucky it was me using the door when it happened, so I could catch it and relieve the tension on the bottom hinge immediately. I’m afraid if it would have let loose when one of my grandchildren were opening it, either or both the door and cupboard could have split.
So here’s how to fix it: (according to my old carpenter friend that taught me the carpenter trick to repair furniture)
I removed the door from the cupboard, and laid it on a flat surface, (it will need to lay flat overnight, so pick a spot that it can sit for a while)
Then I squirted in a bunch of Carpenter’s Wood Glue. (in this case, I do prefer wood glue, I believe it is stronger and works better for this project)
The next thing I did was to fill the hole with toothpicks. one at a time, shoving the last ones in as hard as I could. A couple of thoughts about this: be sure to try to get the toothpicks all the way to the bottom of the hole, this is important because one of the issues with loose screws can be the hole is too deep. And secondly, try to completely fill the hole, some of the glue will ooze back out the hole, that’s OK. For effect, I showed you all the toothpicks long at one time,
but in reality, it’s much easier if you snip off each one once as it’s inserted in the hole. It is important to get the top of the toothpick flush with the cupboard door so that your hinge, when placed back on it, will lay flat on the door.
Once the holes were filled with snipped toothpicks and glue, I let it dry overnight. It’s hard to define separate toothpicks in this photo, but each screw hole did take several toothpicks to completely fill it.
Basically, what you’re creating is a wood based wood filler that will have strength to give the screw something to grip onto.
It’s important when you are ready to put the hinge back on the door, that you pre-drill the holes for the screws. This always help prevent the screw slipping around and not going into the wood in the exact spot we’re aiming for, and helps prevent the wood from splitting. Just be sure you don’t go too deeply, or use too large of a drill bit, (but if you do, now you know how to fix it!)
The old screws that were holding the hinge were in really bad shape and I wasn’t able to reuse them, but these new screws work great and hold the door on really well.
All done!
I found this primitive cupboard on Craigslist. It is very old, and I am loving this addition of it to our breakfast room, I’m so glad that I was able to easily fix the hinge so that it hopefully will be in use for a long time into the future too.
Want to read a little more about the breakfast room and see what other primitive style things we have in it?
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For larger screw or nail holes use golf tees or chopsticks as the filler
I think hardwood dowels line oak or maple cut to size would be better and stronger than toothpicks imo.
Thank You Jose, I have found the advantage to using toothpicks is they’re small enough and will fit in the weird little areas that have sometimes been created with the screw moving around in the hole, as opposed to trying to cut the exact size of a dowel that fit it exactly is more difficult for me. And the glue and toothpicks are extremely strong.
I find that if you use a peace of wood thats little harder than the peace you are working on, the screw tighten lot better. I like wood shaving too that way I know what kind of wood I’m using .
Chopsticks are good,soft enough to cut off. Glue in and trim.
This is something i learned a long time ago. It works great. Good point on pre-drilling after plugging the holes. The one thing I would do differently is try and find a vintage slot head screw to match.
You’re right Roger, a vintage screw would finish the look nicely.
Wooden golf tees are also great for this trick, since they’re similar in size and shape to the screws you removed.
Something else you can do, if you have access to sawdust is to make a very thick paste from sawdust and wood glue. Then fill each hole, making sure to really get it down to the bottom. Let it dry completely. Then do as you did and predrill holes before using any more screws.
This also works great for patching wood pieces and can be stained!
Yes, thanks for that tip, I’ve seen him do that treatment as well.
Good trick. You can also use wooden chopsticks that came with your last Chinese or small dowels.