How to Make Wood Plugs
WWGOA EditorsDescription
There are LOTS of ways to join wood. One tried and true method is to use screws to fasten parts together. But this can leave screws heads showing and, in most cases, you don’t want screw heads as a decorative element in your project. No problem, we can take care of that. It’s a fairly simple matter of knowing how to make wood plugs that will cover the screw heads.
Drilling the screw holes
Getting this process right starts with correctly drilling for the screws. Use a countersink set that, in one step, drills the correct hole for the screw AND leaves a hole that a plug can fit into.
Cloak of invisibility
Use a screw plug cutter to cut the plugs from the same material you’re using for your project. If you’re careful, the plugs will be nearly invisible. Or, use a contrasting material and make the plug decorative.
Shearing the plugs
Yep, you could sand the plugs flush but you’ll save time, and it’s really rewarding, to use a sharp chisel and trim the plugs close before doing any sanding. If the chisel work doesn’t go well and you end up with an Oops, don’t sweat it. We’ll show you how to fix that.
Can we plug pocket holes?
If you’re using pocket hole joinery on your projects we can apply a similar idea. Hiding pocket holes with plugs is easy to do, and you can make custom plugs to add decorative details. You just need to know how to make wood plugs for those specific holes.
Other joinery methods
There are so many ways to put wood together. With such a huge array of joints and joinery available, we’re happy to provide you with the how-to you need to add joints to your woodworking arsenal.
Hey everyone, Ethan here. And today we're gonna be talking about wood plugs. Now there's a lot of different ways to attach one piece of wood to another. On one hand, you have traditional Japanese joinery basically poetry and wood. On the other hand, you have the good old hammer and nails. Both of them work. It just depends on the look you're going for. So today, we're gonna be talking about something right in the middle and that is wood plugs. Two examples of them right here. This one we're using the exact same wood and the same grain so it matches seamlessly in there. The other option is using a contrasting wood. Maple and walnut. It really depends on the project and the look that you're going for. So here's the tools you're gonna need. Plug cutter, screws, counter sink, Allen key for your counter sink, chisel, something to pop the plugs out with, something to hit the plugs in with, glue, drill, sander and a drill press. First, we're gonna over the mitre saw, we're gonna cut it all to size. This is the off cut piece. I'm gonna write save on it because in a busy shop this could get lost and you wanna spend your time doing the plug cuts not trying to grain match another piece of wood that you're gonna find. So I have the save piece. I'm gonna bring it over to the drill press right now. For the second step, we take our piece over the drill press with our plug cutter already loaded in. We make some plugs. Now you can set the depth for this or you can just eyeball it. But that's what they're gonna look like after you plug cut. For the next step you're gonna take your pieces of wood, throw some glue on it, spread out nice and even throw some clamps on it and then you're ready for the next countersink step. So we have our countersink all loaded up. We're gonna go right here. Now we have our drill. We're gonna take our screw. We're gonna connect it all. With the glue and the screw you know it's not gonna go anywhere. All right, now you're gonna take your glue and just a little bit just to coat the edges. There we go. You don't wanna get a big pool. You don't want it squeezing over your plug. That should be good. Take your plugs. And remember to always go with the grain. That way it can be seamless. Knock it in. Take the second one again with the grain. All right. Now you're gonna take your chisel and sometimes your chisel's razor-sharp, sometimes it can use a little work. So I like to go a little bit over just a little bit. That way you can come back with your sander and there won't be any issues. Take a look here. That's too deep. So that's not gonna come out with the sander. So here is what you do a little tip take a drill, take a screw, set it up and you go right into the center of this one. There you go. Now your screw is gonna hit the top of the other screw and pop this right out. So you get a second chance at it. Always grain matching is pain when it's not and you have it off, it just doesn't blend. Knock it back in. All right, take just a little bit off. Now we're gonna come with a sander. All right and there you go. So unclamp this. As you can see you keep sanding it, it's getting cleaner and cleaner but with the grain looks good. It's gonna disappear right into the wood. Now, these are a couple of stools that we make at the shop. As you can see maple, walnut with the nice contrasting. People like them. I like them. Let me know what you think. And also let me know if you have any questions on this process. Happy to answer any questions you might have. Thanks for watching. See it the next video.
Lot's of bad advice in this video. Maybe this works for this guy but it looks like he makes a lot more work for himself than necessary. I screw and plug a lot of my work so here's some advice, for what it's worth... -Don't make wafer-thin plugs. You need a substantial amount of the plug below the surface so it's less easily removed and so it holds strong when being flushed to the piece. Try to have a plug at least 3/8" in length and at least 1/4" below the surface. -Don't use a countersink bit to bore a hole when you plan on plugging. This will bevel the top of your hole making it difficult for a plug to sit properly. Instead, use a regular drill bit to make a straight, cylindrical hole so the plug will appear seamless when flush cut to the surface. -Don't use a hammer and chisel to flush the plugs to the rest of the piece. As you see in the video the wood fibers of the plug rip out below the surface and he has to remove the plug. I'm surprised he didn't offer an alternative to the hammer/chisel method because it clearly failed him. It's much easier to use a flush cut saw to remove the bulk of the plug then sand the rest flush. There's two videos on this site titled "CUTTING PLUGS AND USING PLUG CUTTERS" and "TRIMMING SCREW PLUGS" where George shows a different way of approaching this. I suggest you watch those instead of this one.
How do you get the newly cut plugs out of the wood you drilled them from?
Might want to show how a small Japanese saw can give even better, quicker results than a chisel. Done right, sometimes they barely need sanding.
I have 3 different types of plug cutters I have the prong type like you used and the solid type never could get them to work right HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPP.