Removing a Wood Plug

jholmes · Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 80 Location: Eagan, MN

I have a older piece of furniture that is getting flimsy because some of the joints have loosened up. I know all I need to do is tighten some of the screws holding the piece together, as I have, but some of the screws are concealed by flush wood plugs. Those are the screws I really need to tighten!

MY questions is, how do I remove that wood plug without marring up surrounding wood by chiseling or drilling it out?

webmaster · Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:37 pm Post subject: Screw out the Wood Plug

This technique requires you to replace the wood plug, but its quick and easy!

Drill a 1/6" hole dead center in the wood plug. Then take a small drywall screw (1 1/2") and drive it through the predrilled hole. Use a screwdriver not a power drill/driver, so you can go nice and slow. The drywall screw will hit, or bottom out, at screw head under the plug. When it does, it won't go any further, but as you continue to screw the plug will ease out as it travels up the threads.

Once the plug is removed, you can tighten the screw. If those threads are stripped out, you can shove in a wood match stick (with match head removed) to act as a filler for the stripped hole. When you replace the screw, it should tighten up then.

handnhammer · Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 60 Location: Ann Arbor, MI

This is a great technique! However, you'll need to install a new wood plug. If you need to do this, then you can purchase them from any woodworking store, such as Woodcraft. You'll also need a sharp chisel.

Insert the new wood plug, and gentally tap it in with a small hammer. Don't worry about damaging the top of the plug a little.
Flush wood plugs, what you have installed, typically don't go in all the way, there will still be a little bit of the plug sticking out. To remove this without damaging the surrounding wood, use a sharp chisel and cut off the remaining plug. Be very carefull around the surrounding wood.
At this point, on newly build furniture, you would sand the top of the plug to get it totally flush with the surrounding wood. However, this is not practical in your case, so do your best in chiseling!
If you need to match the plug to the rest of the stained piece, then I would use a precolored/pigmented poly, otherwise the plug may will soak up alot of stain an look darker than the surrounding wood. Of course, the other plugs on your piece may have a darker look from when it was originally stained. Take another plug and test how it takes any stain to be sure

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