I should really find a woodworking forum, but this is quick and (I hope) simple for the experts here:
I've got an old, sloppily-refinished Bertoia bench (oak slats, 1" thick) that I bought secondhand a little while ago. I started to take it apart for a proper restoration today, and I discovered that a previous owner had snapped the heads off a few of the screws. Instead of extracting the broken screws and repairing the holes, he chose to drill new holes next to the old ones and fill them with random drywall screws. I got a killer deal on the thing, so I'm not complaining too loudly, but still...
Anyway, the only experience I have with a similar repair is from twenty years ago, when I spent a week helping a friend repair dozens of stripped screw holes in his boat. We drilled each hole to around twice its original diameter, pressed in an epoxy-covered wood plug, then drilled that plug for the screw.
I'm planning to drill out the broken screws and then repair the bench the same way as the boat. Good idea?
There
are several kinds of screw extraction devices, which either grab the screw around the outside, or fit a counter-spiral point into a hole drilled in the center of the screw. Easy Out is the name of the second type.
But what do you do with those second screw holes next to the original ones ? Invisibly plugging screw holes (if that is the intent) is virtually impossible, even under a painted surface. . .
Barry and SDR...
Thanks for the encouragement. The holes are on the underside of the slats and are hidden behind the metal legs, so I'm not concerned with making the repair invisible; even a new hole large enough to absorb BOTH of the existing ones will be completely hidden once the legs are in place.
I guess my biggest question is whether I need to use a wood plug at all. If the bench will be indoors, can I just fill the holes with epoxy? I have a press, so drilling new holes in the hardened epoxy plugs wouldn't be a problem...
Yes, by all means fill the holes up properly
I especially love the Bertoia bench when it had developed that older, aged look. Beautiful.
There's a church not 3 blocks from me that was designed by Eliel Saarinen and Eero did the attached school building and coordinated all of the mostly Knoll furniture. 4 Bertoia benches are in the glassed-in hallway and they look dark and used and perfect!
By the way, the meeting room lounge is almost all Florence Knoll and has an original Papa Bear chair too.
The name of the church is Christ Lutheran.
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