Rescrew

Re: Rescrew

Jack Guzman from Maine

Check out Rockler or some other hardware vendor for particle board screws. They make screws especially for furniture made with the material.

Re: Rescrew

Tara Desmond

Unfortunately the hole is so big that there wouldn't even be anything for the screws to go into

Re: Rescrew

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Soak the holes with clear expoxy; the chip board will absorb it. Before it fully sets up, mix mor epoxy with sawdust and pack the holes as full as you can. Let sit for a week to fully cure. The drill a hole equal to the shaft (not the threads) of the screws in the old holes and attach without putting too much torque on the driver.

Alternative: Trash the piece and buy a new table made of solid wood.

Re: Rescrew

Bruce, a MN Galoot

Put the screw in a different place. It likely doesn’t need to be where it is.

Re: Rescrew

Pete in Holland MI

Glue a piece of 1/2" plywood over the majority of the back of the table. Use liberal amounts of glue & clamp/weight in place. You most likely won't notice the height gain. Re-drill and re-install all parts.

Re: Rescrew

kneale brownson

Pieces of wooden toothpick glued into the existing hole will make it capable of accepting the screw.

Re: Rescrew

Barry Irby

When I repair doors in the houses I flip, I carry a bag of plugs with me. I make them out of pine or maybe poplar and they are 3/8" or 1/2". I use a cheap plug cutter I got at Lowes. When I encounter a wallowed out hole for a hinge or lock screw, I drill it out to the size of one of the plugs, slather on a little wood glue, insert the plug and tap it in, snip it off with a chisel and reinstall the screw. In my case, the plugs are tapered and fit tight, and the screw tries to expand them and make them tighter. These side grain plugs work much better than toothpicks or dowels.

Another approach would be to install a threaded metal insert in the existing location with a little epoxy on it if necessary and use machine screws to make the final attachment.

And, you could try "Euro Screws". I found some recently and it took me a while to understand what they are for and how they work. These are short fat screw, maybe half an inch long and close to a 1/4" in diameter and they work well for the Euro hinges. They will barely fit through the holes in the hinges and you drill somewhat oversized holes and they grip well in MDF. These may not have the right geometry for what you are doing.

Similar solution...

John in NM

When I used to do trim work on the side I used to carry a few blocks of alder or poplar, just ~1" offcuts from a board. Split off a flake thicker than the hole, then split square plugs off the flake, taper with a chisel, slather with glue and tap into the hole until snug, or well past snug. Once snug the plug can be pared flush before the glue is dry.

In Tara's case I would probably drill a large blind hole with a forstner bit and glue in a matching wood plug. The wood will hold far better than particle board. I gather that this is a client's table, so tossing the top and making a new one is probably not a practical suggestion (though it is one I would make in a flash if I thought it were )

Re: Plugs

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

are great in solid wood and ply, but I think they're prone to fail in particle board which will be only as strong as the glue's bond with the surface particles. Epoxy, otoh, will be absorbed and spread to 2 or 3 times the diameter of the hole. If the hole is then packed with dust wet with epoxy that section will be far stronger when the epoxy cures, essentially making a wood/resin composit to hold the screw and spread the stress over a wider area.

Of course, that's only my experience. I could be wrong

Best of both then...

John in NM

Epoxy the plug in

Second your solution

David Yoho

Tara's photo was too small for me to see any detail of the issue. However, given particle board's tendency to flake and thereby resulting in a larger void, I agree with the approach using epoxy and wood dust. I would leave installing wood plugs or slivers to solid wood or plywood.

How did it happen

Wiley Horne

Hi Tara and all,

Lots of good advice given already.

One further thing to think about is ‘how did this happen?’ Most likely the table needed to be moved, and the mover(s) picked the table up by the top edge—as one does—and there was nothing keeping the top on but a few screws into particle board. And up it came.

So. The fix has to be strong enough to sustain lifting-by-the-edge, or else the owner must be advised to only lift by the rails.

Wiley