How To Repair Door Hinge Holes

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If you have a loose hinge and y'all tin't tighten it because the screws just spin in place, the spiral holes are probably stripped. If the loose holes are in a solid piece of wood like a door frame, drill them out and fill them with wooden dowels to create a new surface for the screws to go into. If you want a quicker method that doesn't require boring out the holes, effort filling the stripped holes with golf tees, matchsticks or toothpicks, forest anchors, or cyanoacrylate glue. Apply longer screws in the loose holes if they are just starting to go stripped.

1. 1

   Remove the loose screws and the swivel plate with a drill or screwdriver. Apply a screwdriver or electric drill to unscrew the loose screws all the way. Prepare the screws aside and swing the hinge plate abroad so information technology'due south not covering the loose holes.^[1]

   • If you are fixing just a few loose screw holes for something that has multiple hinges, like a door, you can put a wedge underneath information technology to support it while yous unscrew the loose hinge and fix the stripped holes. If all the hinges take loose screws, it volition exist easier to just completely remove the door.
   • If at that place is paint over the hinge, you can piece around it carefully with a utility knife or box cutter to free it and so yous can swing the plate away.

   Tip: This method works best for hinges that are attached to a thick, solid piece of wood, such as a solid wooden door or door frame.

2. 2

   Drill out the loose holes with a ³⁄₈  in (0.95 cm) drill bit. Attach a ³⁄_eight  in (0.95 cm) drill bit to an electric drill. Drill direct into each of the stripped holes, going at least ane in (two.5 cm) deep, to bore them out.^[2]

   • This will make all the stripped holes a uniform size that you tin can fit a slice of wooden dowel into perfectly.

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3. three

   Saw a ³⁄₈  in (0.95 cm) diameter wooden dowel into ane in (2.5 cm) long pieces. Measure and mark 1 in (two.5 cm) long sections along an entire piece of dowel. Use a hand saw or whatever type of power saw you have available to cutting the pieces.^[3]

   • You volition need a 1 in (2.five cm) long piece of dowel for each loose pigsty yous need to fix.
   • If you use a handheld saw, clamp the wooden dowel to a workbench or put it in a vise to agree information technology steady while you cutting the pieces.
   • A wooden dowel is a round piece of forest that comes in rods of varying diameters and lengths. Information technology is available at home improvement centers, woodworking supply and arts and crafts shops, or online. If you don't take the tools to cut the dowel yourself, you can purchase pre-cutting wooden dowels.

4. 4

   Coat a 1 in (2.5 cm) long, ³⁄_viii  in (0.95 cm) diameter dowel in carpenter'due south glue. Clasp a driblet of carpenter's glue out onto the side of the piece of wooden dowel. Use your fingers or a fleck slice of dowel to spread the carpenter'south glue up and downward the sides.^[4]

   • The carpenter's glue will agree the dowel in place inside a stripped pigsty.
   • You could as well dip the dowel virtually halfway into a bottle of carpenter'due south glue, then spread out the glue forth the sides.

5. 5

   Tap the wooden dowel into 1 of the holes gently using a hammer. Push one finish of the piece of wooden dowel into 1 of the stripped holes. Carefully tap it in with a hammer until it is flush with the surrounding wood.^[five]

   • The wooden dowel volition plug the stripped pigsty, essentially giving y'all a fresh surface to reattach the hinge to.

6. 6

   Repeat the process for the rest of the stripped holes. Coat 1-inch-long, 3/8-inch-diameter pieces of wooden dowel in carpenter's gum, ane at a fourth dimension, for each stripped hole. Use your hammer to tap each wooden dowel into each loose hole.^[6]

   • Brand certain you lot get all the dowels flush with the surrounding wood, then the surface is totally apartment.

7. 7

   Await for 1 hr to permit the mucilage dry out. Let the wooden dowels dry in the holes for at to the lowest degree one hour. This will ensure they are securely held in place when you reattach the swivel.^[7]

   • If there is whatsoever backlog glue that oozed out of the holes, wipe it away with a rag so it doesn't dry and make the surface uneven.

8. viii

   Drill a ^one⁄_viii  in (0.32 cm) pilot hole into each wooden dowel using an electrical drill. Attach a ¹⁄₈  in (0.32 cm) drill bit to your electric drill. Drill straight into each wooden dowel that you plugged a loose hole with to create pilot holes for the hinge's screws.^[8]

   • This volition arrive easier to reattach the swivel and become the screws in perfectly straight.

9. 9

   Reattach the hinge using its screws. Position the hinge plate back over the reinforced holes. Put the screws dorsum in through the holes in the swivel into the airplane pilot holes in the dowel.^[9]

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1. ane

   Plug holes with golf tees if the holes are big enough. Remove the loose screws and the hinge. Dip the tip of a golf game tee into carpenter's mucilage, tap it into a loose hole using a hammer, then snap off the excess forest sticking out of the hole. Reattach the hinge by driving screws through its holes into the golf game tees later on the glue is dry.^[10]

   • The golf tees volition provide extra woods inside the stripped holes for the screws to grab onto.
   • This method is a quick alternative to using wooden dowels that doesn't require you lot to bore the holes out.

   Tip: To make the tee perfectly flush with the surrounding woods, you lot can score the side of it with a utility knife right against the wood surface. This volition arrive easier to snap off the excess more evenly.

2. 2

   Make full holes with toothpicks or matches to provide added grip for screws. Unscrew the loose screws and remove the hinge from on acme of the stripped holes. Clasp a driblet of carpenter'due south glue into each loose hole, then push about 3 wooden matches or toothpicks into the hole, or enough to fill it, and snap the excess woods off. Screw the hinge back into place subsequently the glue is dry out.^[eleven]

   • The extra wood from the matches or toothpicks helps the screws fit tightly into the stripped holes. You tin use multiple matches or toothpicks in each hole if y'all need to fill the hole more.
   • Make sure to snap off the friction match heads if you use wooden matches.
   • This method works well for smaller holes that yous don't desire to drill out to fill and take chances damaging the forest. For example, yous could use this to fix stripped holes on sparse cabinet doors.

3. 3

   Put wood anchors into stripped holes so the screws fit tightly. Buy some plastic, cone-shaped wood anchors that friction match the diameter of the swivel screws. Remove the swivel from on elevation of the loose holes. Screw a wood anchor into each loose pigsty until information technology won't go any farther, and so bend it to snap it. Reattach the swivel by driving the original screws into the wood anchors and other holes.^[12]

   • Plastic, cone-shaped woods anchors work all-time considering they fit into stripped holes of any diameter with no drilling required. There are as well metal, cylindrical wood anchors available, but you lot would have to bore out each loose hole to the diameter of the anchors in club to use them.

4. 4

   Fill loose holes with cyanoacrylate gum and reinsert the screws for a quick fix. Remove the screws and swivel, then squeeze enough cyanoacrylate gum into each loose hole to fill it. Let the glue cure for about two minutes, then screw the hinge back into place.^[13]

   • Cyanoacrylate mucilage is a fast-drying, ultra-stiff glue that basically turns into a polymer resin when it is cured. It will hold the screws securely in place in the stripped holes.
   • Super glue is a common name that different brands give to cyanoacrylate glue.

5. v

   Use longer screws to secure a swivel to loose holes. Remove whatever loose screws from the swivel using a screwdriver or drill. Supersede them with a longer screw of the same diameter.^[14]

   • This works best for holes that are merely starting to get stripped to prevent them from getting worse. The longer screw will bite into the deeper, unstrapped wood to hold the swivel more deeply in place.
   • Keep in listen that it may exist difficult to find a longer screw that matches the original screws and the stop of the swivel. If this is important to you, you might exist better off using a different method that allows you lot to keep the original screws.

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Add together New Question

• Question

  What can I use if I don't have a wooden dowel?

  

  Ryaan Tuttle is a Home Comeback Specialist and the CEO of Best Handyman Boston. With over 15 years of feel, Ryaan specializes in home comeback and property maintenance past leveraging technology and craftsmanship. Ryaan holds his Construction Supervisor and Home Improvement Contractor Licenses. Unlike most handyman contractors, All-time Handyman Boston is licensed and insured. Boston Magazine and LocalBest.com have named Best Handyman Boston the All-time Handyman in Boston.

  

  Home Improvement Specialist

  Good Answer

  Use a golf tee and some wood glue. Squeeze a footling bit of wood mucilage into the screw hole and onto the stop of the golf game tee. And so, hammer the golf tee into the screw and then it'south nice and tight. Snap off the part of the golf tee that's still sticking out, and let the wood glue dry. In a few hours, you tin reinstall your screw.

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Things You'll Demand

• Electric drill
• Wooden dowels
• Carpenter's glue
• Saw
• Hammer

• Golf game tees
• Carpenter's glue
• Hammer
• Wooden toothpicks or matches
• Long wood screws
• Wood anchors
• Cyanoacrylate glue
• Screwdriver

About This Article

Commodity Summary X

You can repair a loose wood screw hole for a hinge by inserting a dowel to reinstall the spiral or by relocating the hinge and then it holds stronger. To remove the loose wood screw, drill out the stripped hole and glue in a dowel the same diameter as your drill bit. Then, glue and cut the dowel so information technology's flush with the edge of the door or hinge. You tin can then drive the screw into the dowel to secure it. To relocate the hinge, remove the screws from the hinge and slide it upwards or down a few inches. You lot may need to re-chisel a pock in the frame so the hinge sits flush. Then, yous tin drive the screws into the screw holes on the hinge to secure it. To learn how to use a shim to repair a loose wood screw hole for a hinge, keep reading!

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Source: https://www.wikihow.com/Repair-a-Loose-Wood-Screw-Hole-for-a-Hinge

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