How to Plug Screw Holes in Furniture

Series Summary

Furniture serves many important, essential functions for people the world over. In the last few thousand years, chairs, beds, desks, and tables have provided places to sit, eat, talk, work, gather, or sleep. Many people will spend more than a third of their lives in, at, or on furniture. It comes as no surprise, then, that humans have a unique relationship with this group of items they spend so much time around. In some ways, furniture has become a reflection of personality. When choosing furniture for their homes or offices, people are known to concentrate on design, giving it equal or greater weight than function and stability. Many people pass furniture items down from one generation to the next, keeping the item as a family heirloom.

With so many people spending so much time on furniture, you should have no problem finding used chairs or other furniture items that are a few simple restoration steps away from looking practically brand new. In this free woodworking video, you will learn how to plug the screw holes in wood chairs in such a way that visitors will never notice your excellent repair job. An expert carpenter tells you how to insert the plug and then remove it to create the perfect healing magic for that unsightly hole in your breakfast set!

Video Transcript

"This is an old chair that I found in a dumpster. It was all broken up, so I repaired it and re-glued it and put it all back together. But, on the back of this chair the screw that holds the seat in is exposed. Now, that's kind of ugly. So, today I'm going to put a plug in there to hide that screw. In many other chairs that I've repaired, the plug here is very important. Mainly, for cosmetic purposes to hide that screw. And, also to make a nice smooth transition down the leg. What I'm going to do is take this screw out. And, use my counter sink. This tool right here, to make a hole to take this little plug. It's a three eighths inch birch plug. I'm going to insert the screw back in and then add the plug. Ordinarily, you'd want to color this plug. But, since this is just an old shop chair I'm not going to worry about the plug. You would probably just get some stain that seems to match your chair. And, paint a little bit on the plug. And, you want to do that before you install it. So, here we go with removing a screw and installing a plug."