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This just came up as part of another thread and I thought it might be worth tossing out to a more general audience.
If you do much remodeling, you encounter stripped or mis-positioned screw holes a lot, especially for things like hinges and door latches. All it takes is a few years or some serial inept 'repair' work to make the hardware setup on a door or the like a messed-up ruin.
This is a technique that I think most experienced handypersons know, but I learned it way later than I should have and I still see all kinds of alternatives that are much clumsier and less effective.
So, problem: a stripped screw hole or one that's just enough offset you can't drive a new screw in the right place.
Solution:
Drill out the hole with a sharp 1/4-inch bit.
Cut a length of 1/4 inch dowel long enough to go all the way through the jamb wood or at least an inch deep.
OPTIONAL: It helps to sand down the diameter of one end of the cut piece, just a bit, to make it easier to insert.
Squirt wood glue into the hole and around the insert end of the dowel.
Push the dowel into the hole; use a hammer to gently drive it flush.
It's best to wait at least an hour or two for the wood to absorb the glue and start setting, but you can often drill a new pilot hole and go almost right away. Other techniques like using golf tees work just as well, but don't fully fill the hole to depth, need the glue to dry fully before proceeding, and then need cutting/trimming flush. This trick lets you fix and move on, no fancy tools needed. I keep 1/4 dowel around just for this task. I even cut and 'point' some pieces for the next time, sometimes.
Can be scaled up by dowel sizes for larger screws and lags as well. Tighten them hinges; get them latch plates in EXACTLY the right place; it's Miller time.
Further hint: put at least one long screw in each hinge, on the jamb side, ideally long enough to go through to the structural wood beyond. Especially on the top hinge. Those one-inch screws are only strong enough under ideal conditions and moderate use...
My go to repair for screws was to use a golf tee and glue, and a bit longer screw. I would pare the end slightly, add glue, tap it in with a hammer, use my chisel to cut it off. The other 3 or 4 screws will hold the hinge in place so the glued tee will be just fine.
Never had a problem in the dozens if not hundreds of stripped screws I encountered.
I'm sure the dowell would be a bit better, but I didn't carry dowells in my nail bag, but always had a few golf tees.
Yes, there are many techniques. Certainly, use whatever works for you.
I've settled on the OP method because...
It's simple if you just have a dowel on hand.
It's as fast to execute as any other technique. Faster than dinking around with little pieces of wood that have to be positioned to stay in the hole.
It's strong and remains strong after a few screw removal cycles; toothpicks and matchsticks tend to disintegrate.
But mainly... it's do-and-go. Every other technique has the hurdle of "when the glue is dry..." which is effectively 24 hours, especially when using loose bits of repair wood.
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