How To Repair Stripped Screws In Door Frame

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If you have a loose hinge and you can't tighten it because the screws just spin in place, the screw holes are probably stripped. If the loose holes are in a solid piece of wood like a door frame, drill them out and make full them with wooden dowels to create a new surface for the screws to go into. If you lot desire a quicker method that doesn't crave tedious out the holes, endeavor filling the stripped holes with golf tees, matchsticks or toothpicks, wood anchors, or cyanoacrylate mucilage. Use longer screws in the loose holes if they are but starting to get stripped.

1. one

   Remove the loose screws and the hinge plate with a drill or screwdriver. Use a screwdriver or electrical drill to unscrew the loose screws all the way. Set the screws aside and swing the hinge plate away and then information technology's non covering the loose holes.^[1]

   • If y'all are fixing simply a few loose screw holes for something that has multiple hinges, like a door, you can put a wedge underneath it to support it while you unscrew the loose hinge and fix the stripped holes. If all the hinges take loose screws, information technology will be easier to merely completely remove the door.
   • If there is pigment over the hinge, yous tin can slice around it carefully with a utility knife or box cutter to free it so you lot can swing the plate away.

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

2. two

   Drill out the loose holes with a ³⁄_eight  in (0.95 cm) drill scrap. Attach a ³⁄₈  in (0.95 cm) drill bit to an electric drill. Drill directly into each of the stripped holes, going at least one in (2.5 cm) deep, to bore them out.^[two]

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

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3. 3

   Saw a ³⁄₈  in (0.95 cm) diameter wooden dowel into one in (ii.five cm) long pieces. Measure out and marker 1 in (2.5 cm) long sections forth an entire piece of dowel. Use a hand saw or any blazon of power saw you have available to cut the pieces.^[3]

   • Yous volition need a 1 in (2.five cm) long piece of dowel for each loose pigsty you demand to prepare.
   • If y'all apply a handheld saw, clench the wooden dowel to a workbench or put it in a vise to hold information technology steady while you lot cutting the pieces.
   • A wooden dowel is a round piece of wood that comes in rods of varying diameters and lengths. It is available at habitation improvement centers, woodworking supply and arts and crafts shops, or online. If yous don't take the tools to cut the dowel yourself, yous tin purchase pre-cut wooden dowels.

4. 4

   Coat a ane in (2.5 cm) long, ³⁄₈  in (0.95 cm) diameter dowel in carpenter's gum. Squeeze a drop of carpenter'due south glue out onto the side of the slice of wooden dowel. Use your fingers or a fleck piece of dowel to spread the carpenter's gum upward and down the sides.^[4]

   • The carpenter'due south glue will hold the dowel in place inside a stripped hole.
   • Yous could also dip the dowel virtually halfway into a canteen of carpenter'southward glue, then spread out the glue forth the sides.

5. five

   Tap the wooden dowel into 1 of the holes gently using a hammer. Push 1 end of the piece of wooden dowel into 1 of the stripped holes. Carefully tap it in with a hammer until it is affluent with the surrounding wood.^[5]

   • The wooden dowel will plug the stripped hole, essentially giving you a fresh surface to reattach the hinge to.

6. half dozen

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

   • Make certain you get all the dowels flush with the surrounding forest, and then the surface is totally flat.

7. seven

   Wait for 1 60 minutes to let the glue dry. Let the wooden dowels dry in the holes for at least ane hour. This will ensure they are securely held in place when you reattach the swivel.^[7]

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

8. 8

   Drill a ¹⁄₈  in (0.32 cm) pilot pigsty into each wooden dowel using an electrical drill. Attach a ¹⁄_eight  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 airplane pilot holes for the hinge's screws.^[8]

   • This will make information technology easier to reattach the hinge and become the screws in perfectly directly.

9. 9

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

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1. 1

   Plug holes with golf tees if the holes are large enough. Remove the loose screws and the hinge. Dip the tip of a golf game tee into carpenter'due south mucilage, tap it into a loose hole using a hammer, then snap off the backlog woods sticking out of the hole. Reattach the hinge by driving screws through its holes into the golf tees after the gum is dry out.^[x]

   • The golf game tees will provide extra wood 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 to diameter the holes out.

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

2. 2

   Fill holes with toothpicks or matches to provide added grip for screws. Unscrew the loose screws and remove the swivel from on top of the stripped holes. Squeeze a driblet of carpenter'due south mucilage into each loose hole, then push almost 3 wooden matches or toothpicks into the hole, or enough to fill information technology, and snap the excess wood off. Screw the hinge dorsum into place after the glue is dry out.^[11]

   • The extra wood from the matches or toothpicks helps the screws fit tightly into the stripped holes. You lot tin utilize multiple matches or toothpicks in each hole if you need to fill up the hole more than.
   • Brand sure to snap off the match heads if you use wooden matches.
   • This method works well for smaller holes that yous don't want to drill out to fill up and take chances damaging the woods. For example, you could use this to ready stripped holes on thin cabinet doors.

3. iii

   Put wood anchors into stripped holes so the screws fit tightly. Buy some plastic, cone-shaped wood anchors that friction match the bore of the hinge screws. Remove the hinge from on top of the loose holes. Screw a wood anchor into each loose hole until information technology won't go whatsoever further, then curve information technology to snap it. Reattach the hinge by driving the original screws into the forest anchors and other holes.^[12]

   • Plastic, cone-shaped wood anchors work best because they fit into stripped holes of any diameter with no drilling required. There are besides metal, cylindrical wood anchors available, simply you would have to diameter out each loose hole to the diameter of the anchors in social club to use them.

4. 4

   Fill loose holes with cyanoacrylate glue and reinsert the screws for a quick set. Remove the screws and hinge, so clasp enough cyanoacrylate glue into each loose hole to fill up it. Let the glue cure for virtually 2 minutes, then screw the hinge back into place.^[13]

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

5. 5

   Utilize longer screws to secure a hinge to loose holes. Remove any loose screws from the hinge using a screwdriver or drill. Replace them with a longer screw of the aforementioned bore.^[xiv]

   • This works best for holes that are just starting to get stripped to foreclose them from getting worse. The longer screw will bite into the deeper, unstrapped wood to concur the hinge more than securely in place.
   • Go on in mind that it may be difficult to find a longer spiral that matches the original screws and the finish of the hinge. If this is important to you, yous might be improve off using a unlike method that allows y'all 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 Improvement Specialist and the CEO of Best Handyman Boston. With over 15 years of experience, Ryaan specializes in home improvement and holding maintenance by leveraging engineering science and craftsmanship. Ryaan holds his Structure Supervisor and Habitation Comeback Contractor Licenses. Unlike nearly handyman contractors, Best Handyman Boston is licensed and insured. Boston Magazine and LocalBest.com have named Best Handyman Boston the Best Handyman in Boston.

  

  Abode Improvement Specialist

  Adept Answer

  Utilise a golf tee and some woods mucilage. Clasp a little bit of wood mucilage into the screw hole and onto the stop of the golf game tee. Then, hammer the golf tee into the screw so information technology's nice and tight. Snap off the part of the golf tee that's nevertheless sticking out, and permit the wood glue dry out. In a few hours, you tin can reinstall your screw.

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Things You'll Demand

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

• Golf tees
• Carpenter'south mucilage
• Hammer
• Wooden toothpicks or matches
• Long wood screws
• Woods anchors
• Cyanoacrylate glue
• Screwdriver

Nearly This Article

Article Summary 10

You can repair a loose woods screw hole for a hinge by inserting a dowel to reinstall the screw or by relocating the hinge so it holds stronger. To remove the loose wood screw, drill out the stripped hole and gum in a dowel the same diameter as your drill flake. And so, glue and cut the dowel so it'due south flush with the edge of the door or hinge. You can and then drive the spiral into the dowel to secure it. To relocate the hinge, remove the screws from the hinge and slide it upward or down a few inches. You lot may demand to re-chisel a pock in the frame so the hinge sits flush. Then, you tin drive the screws into the screw holes on the swivel to secure it. To learn how to utilise a shim to repair a loose wood screw hole for a swivel, keep reading!

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

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