Small chips and dents we can mostly live with but large chunks of wood missing from some misshap just needs to be fixed. Today I want to show you how to use wood filler on chipped wood.
Preparing The Missing Area
Start by adding some sort of brace for the filler. As you can see I added nail heads to the missing area so the filler has something to grab on to.
Making a Mold
If you have another side or in my case matching spindle you can make a mold out of the other one. These are cheap and super easy to make. You will need hot glue, and burn-in balm (Vaseline will work too). Start by rubbing the balm on the piece you are making a mold of, pour hot glue. Once dry carefully peal off the mold.
Reforming the Missing Wood
Next up making your missing piece. I did already talk about types of wood fillers here. On this type of repair I would use tootsie roll, (Mohawk Finishing Supplies) you can buy it here. They do make off brands of this stuff but beware its not that good.
I am using white however this filler comes in many different wood background colors should you need to make this look like wood again. This particular piece is being painted so white is great.
Use the epoxy to fill in the missing area. You may need more balm on your mold so that the filler doesn’t stick to it. Place the mold on the top and push down. Some filler might squeeze out of the sides which you can remove. I took the mold off and checked the profile of my filler to see if I need to push the mold down again to help form the area.
Finishing up
After 5-10 minutes it should be completely dry and ready for sanding. Be sure that it is dry! Finishing up with a 100-180 grit sandpaper to make sure the profiles match up is all you need.
Hope you enjoy if you do this repair please send me a picture!
Happy Fixing
Tara
For some reason, pictures of your repair are over the play by play explanation.
Karen thank you for letting me know. It is coming up ok on my phone I will check everything out.
Thank you so much for this. I have 2 broken pieces i need to repair. This came in so handy.
I’m so glad it helped! Let me know if you have any other wood furniture questions I can help with 😉
Hi Tara. Please tell me if this is correct. I rub the good part (the part i am copying) with balm or vaseline and then cover it with hot glue and let dry? the piece i am repairing is a round decorate part on a dresser leg. I have pictures i could send you. so i let the glue dry and then carefully remove and fill this mold with epoxy? Would that be the epoxy you create with 2 ingredients? You don’t list what kind of epoxy you used. And then put on the the missing part and let dry? I guess i could try. Eeek!!
Yes for the first question. I use Mohawk epoxy. I would start the fill on the missing part and then use the mold to form the epoxy to the missing piece. I will add the link of what epoxy to use. In the mean time please send me pictures to taraloubadger@gmail.com 😉
Hi thanks so much for this! Any tips on making the glue mold without turning the whole thing into a messy disaster would be much appreciated. I don’t have problems with small individual pieces that i can separate and cover with glue, but anything vertical, or a part of the main furniture piece seems to be almost impossible, and glue ends up EVERYWHERE.
Thanks!
My hot glue gun has an adjustment on it to turn down the heat on it, cooler temperatures the glue won’t run all over the place. Even though it can be a pain in the butt I do move furniture to the best position for repairs. If that means on its back I place carts underneath so it is easily moveable to the position I need. Also work in small sections wait for it to dry you want to make sure you don’t have air pockets in it anyway and the best option is to go slow. Hope that helps! Thank you for reading ~ Tara Lou
I have a hope chest that got damaged in a move – the corner chipped off. I’m so excited to try this method in hopes to repair it! Thank you for sharing!
Can you stain it afterwards?
Ryan yes you can. However it never takes the color the same as wood. It will more than likely be lighter. They make many different colors. I usually use pine and color myself.
Thanks for the repair idea! So excited to fix the end of an arm on a barrel back cane chair I am refinishing/upholstering. It has some scroll work on the dog chewed end which I was able to recreate with this.
That is awesome!! So glad I was able to help with your restorations. Many blessings! Tara Lou