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How to Repair a Botched Hinge Installation

comments (13) April 7th, 2009 in blogs     
jameskelly Kelly Dunton, associate art director
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When installing hinges on the lid of a Shaker blanket chest I built recently, I ended up with an unsightly gap. Find out how I repaired it.
To make the repair, I plugged the original pilot holes so I could start over from scratch.
With the repair complete, I redrilled the pilot holes and installed the hinges with a tight fit.
When installing hinges on the lid of a Shaker blanket chest I built recently, I ended up with an unsightly gap. Find out how I repaired it.

When installing hinges on the lid of a Shaker blanket chest I built recently, I ended up with an unsightly gap. Find out how I repaired it.

Photo: Gerald LaStarza
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When the staff at Fine Woodworking isn't busy producing the magazine and website, we can often be found in the shop working on personal projects. Recently, I completed a Shaker blanket chest from cherry that provided a number of lessons in traditional techniques, as well as fixing mistakes.

One mistake happened when I was installing the hinges on the lid. I drilled the pilot holes for the hinge screws slightly out of place and it created a gap around the hinge inside the mortise. Take a look at a photo essay of how I made the repair with a creative fix:

The problem. The tip of my pencil points to an unsightly gap that resulted
from a imprefect hinge mortise. Unfortunately, I already drilled
the pilot holes for the hinge by the time I figured this out.


Start over with new pilot holes. The first step is to fill the old holes
so they can be re-drilled in the correct location. 

Plug the holes. Next, I drove hardwood dowels into the holes to
create a solid surface for the screws to grab.

 Trim the dowels flush. After the glue dried, I removed the excess
dowel material with a chisel.

 

Back to square one. With the hinge placed correctly in the mortise,
I marked new locations for the pilot holes.

 Drill new holes. I carefully drilled the new holes using a depth-stop
on the drill bit to prevent drilling through the lid.

A perfect fit. A little extra effort goes a long way toward making
the finished piece the best it can be.

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Comments (13)

bluplanet bluplanet writes: Expounding on Neopanax's comment.
I'd like to comment on his "Not for fine furniture" disclaimer.
Purists might object on ideological grounds to using dissimilar materials and part of my motivation for this post is to mess with their brains, but the real issue for me is having a drill bit drill into a surface that has different densities and grain directions for one half of the bit than the other. Denser material might shift the bit's center toward softer material. Bamboo can be a pretty hard material. I've done flooring and found it wears carbide tipped blades, but those skewers seem splintery to me and not the same material as the flooring or my old bamboo flyrod. On the other hand, drilling an oversized repair hole and inserting a plug that will completely contain the new screw doesn't sound like a great idea.
I've pounded wooden match sticks with plenty of glue into stripped holes in door hinges with good results. You have to consider the glue is as significant a component of the new material as whatever is used as a plug. In demanding applications, 5-minute epoxy used with the bamboo or with several wood toothpics driven in with a hammer might provide a better anchor than the endgrain of a wood dowel. (My flyrod has an extra tip but I'm not using it for this purpose.)
Posted: 11:11 am on February 3rd

Etoa Etoa writes: I see several comments about using self-centering bits to drill the pilot holes. But if you look closely at the pictures you can see that the pilot holes are drilled slightly off center toward the edge of the hinge. That is the way I would do it. Then when you drive in the screws it will snug the hinge into the mortise and close any gap.
Posted: 4:18 am on February 3rd

neopanax neopanax writes: This reminds me of an old carpenter's trick. He showed me how he used short lengths of bamboo skewers (the kind used for kebabs) to fill the misplaced screw holes much like your method with dowels. Of course this wasn't for fine furniture, but very quick and effective. The hinge hides any unsightliness.
Posted: 11:56 pm on April 23rd

cajunmama cajunmama writes: I am also a beginner to woodworking. My questions are also very basic one. How do you know what size dowels you would need to fill the holes? Also, do you keep dowels of various size and species around the shop or do you make them as needed? I have to order my through the mail. What sizes would you suggest I order? I know this is a broad question but I have to stock things in advance before I start making a new project.
Posted: 8:24 pm on April 23rd

MrPhil MrPhil writes: Just a precaution: When filling the original screw hole prior to redrilling, remember to use a dowel of the same or very similar wood to your piece. Otherwise when you try to redrill, the bit will drift in the direction of the softer wood and you'll be worse off than ever. Ash and oak are close, but oak and maple, for instance, are too dissimilar and a small bit will drift. Been there, done that.
Posted: 2:38 pm on April 22nd

seko seko writes: I know I'm in the minority here as a beginner woodworker but I really appreciate when an article on basics comes up. I'm trying to teach myself as I go but with many projects I look at I'm left with multiple questions because often the issues or techniques that are simply common knowledge to the novice and advanced woodworkers are not covered. Thanks FWW
Posted: 12:22 pm on April 22nd

radevers radevers writes: I guess I am not as experienced as some of the other readers. I appreciated Mr. Dunton's article.
Re: the comments on self centering bits. The self centering bit is a good suggestion for previnting this type of mistake, but sometimes a mistake is made. This article was on how to correct a mistake. It is good for me, because I have some kitchen cabinets that do not fit properly due to mis-located hinges and I can use this technique to fix my problem.
Posted: 11:40 am on April 22nd

Scag_man Scag_man writes: Thanks to the terrific photographic resolution, I can also see the circular scratch just above the first screw hole. Judging by the arc of the scratch, it looks like the hinge probably spun with the screw in the second hole, or a burr in the second hole and marred the finish (been there, done that). I've learned to install all my hinges and hardware before finishing, then fix all my mistakes, then uninstall everything, then finish. This way, the final finish doesn't get marred by hardware installation.
Posted: 11:34 am on April 22nd

Scag_man Scag_man writes: Thanks to the terrific photographic resolution, I can also see the circular scratch just above the first screw hole. Judging by the arc of the scratch, it looks like the hinge probably spun with the screw in the second hole, or a burr in the second hole and marred the finish (been there, done that). I've learned to install all my hinges and hardware before finishing, then fix all my mistakes, then uninstall everything, then finish. This way, the final finish doesn't get marred by hardware installation.
Posted: 11:34 am on April 22nd

ooo_man ooo_man writes: Now that the hinge is in place, how do you get rid of that scratch from a slipped screwdriver that we've all done?
Posted: 11:32 am on April 22nd

spazapple spazapple writes: Self-centering bits...why didn't an editor "revise" Mr. Dunton's well-intended fix? Plugging holes...we all have done this, and no shame! But I count on FWW editors knowing MORE than I do! Sheesh!
Posted: 9:05 am on April 22nd

tyford1 tyford1 writes: A self centering bit beats marking and tilting the hole a tad towards the mortise makes sure the screw contacts the mortise side of the hole first driving the hinge in tightly . Ty.
Posted: 7:34 am on April 22nd

BruceAllen BruceAllen writes: This is a good place to use a guided centering drill bit (Google for 'Vix-bit' to see what they look like). Use a bit of duct tape to hold the hinge in place, then drill directly through the tape and hinge hole with the Vix-bit. The holes will be exactly right, every time.





Posted: 7:22 am on April 22nd

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