Thread: Ding in wood

By wetting/heating the crushed fibers so they swell.
Place a damp cloth over the ding and iron it, check the ding , iron it, check ,.....

the steam/heat may also swell the timber around it.

You can also use a hot tea spoon (I hear) fill it with boiling water and sit the spoon in the ding, the heat will expend the fibers.
I have also heard about filling the ding with metho and setting it alight :eek: but I'm sure there are lots of good reasons not to do this.

wot dave sed.


Works a treat

Depending upon the size of the ding, and whether the wood is treated or not, just tipping V. Hot, or boiling water on it will make it swell and almost remove the offending ding.

It works on pine, as I heard about it somewhere. I tried it, and it's true. Hardwoods etc, I have no idea though.

Try on a bit of scrap, and let us know...

Greg

You might like to go to your local library and get hold of a book called "Fixing and Avoiding Woodworking Mistakes" by Sandor Nagyszalanczy. The book will give you all the answers you need. There are different methods to use depending on the type and size of the dent and the type of timber.

Regards from Adelaide
Trevor

I've tried irons and wet cloth, but as someone up above said, you will also swell the surrounding wood. Depending on the wood and just how badly you've sqashed the fibres, they will often come out to a surprising degree if simply wet with a bit of spit and left for an hour or two.
Serious dings are a bit like a bad catch with the skew - some creative re-design may be necessary............
Cheers,

Thanks again for all your replies.

Thanks Trevor .
I found the book in the Skills Bookshop (About $35.00) so I have ordered it.It looks as though it has some good info and it might save me hassling you guys for a while.

Greg

Originally Posted by Strungout

Thanks again for all your replies.

Thanks Trevor .
I found the book in the Skills Bookshop (About $35.00) so I have ordered it.It looks as though it has some good info and it might save me hassling you guys for a while.

Greg

No hassles for any of us.
Every question that is asked has at least one answer.
We all learn from considering the answers.
So keep asking questions.

Actually the metho one works well.......

Dear Mr Strungout,
You need to get an eyedropper to ever so carefully fill the ding as you call it with a few drops of hot water. Allow this to penetrate for a few seconds. Next you need a 40-60 watt fine tipped soldering iron if the "ding" is of small surface area and bring this into contact with THE WATER ONLY and not the timber!

This should expand the compressed fibres to a near level to its original alignment if YOU ARE EVER SO CAREFULL and have a steady hand. Anything to large may need the additional backup of a SHELLAC stick to fill the indentation. This technique requires a heated knife to melt the shellac and tranfer it to the target area!

Good luck! It should work

I have used the iron trick on vic ash timber flooring that had been polished, the plumber moved the fridges in 14 units and dinted the floor's badly. Builder was having babys i sanded off some of the coat then applied heat and hot water with iron, let the grain come up then sanded and re-coated the floors.

U would not even know that it had been done.

Strungout, by using an iron with cloth on steam, you will remove the dent. As mentioned some small localised swelling of the surrounding wood may occur; however, if you use the iron by pressing hard on the wood the way in which it was intended, the dent (which would be lower than the iron face and wood level) would naturally rise to the correct level of the wood.

Make sure you dry the wood properly before proceeding.

Cheers

Kris

Don't want to rain on anyones parade, but..... In most cases all of the above is pretty well spot on. However as a rule it only works if the ding is a dent. I found (during my many years of restoration work) that if the surface of the timber is broken no amount of heat or water is going to raise it back out the way it will a dent.


Its all in APHB

Cheers - Neil

Originally Posted by ubeaut

Don't want to rain on anyones parade, but..... In most cases all of the above is pretty well spot on. However as a rule it only works if the ding is a dent. I found (during my many years of restoration work) that if the surface of the timber is broken no amount of heat or water is going to raise it back out the way it will a dent.


Its all in APHB

Cheers - Neil

Absolutely!
And for soft surfaces like Cedar, that goes double!
The old shellac sticks can be very handy - or if it's a new piece, go for some heavy planing or a bit of re-design.....
Cheers,

Interesting thread.
Can I add a question?


I had burglars steeling a TV from upstairs and they dropped it in the rush on one of my precious spiral staircase steps (oregon), making a triangular dent. This is a 7 type damage where two sides are broken in. I haven't tried anything yet, and when I suppose hot water / steam, hot iron may reduce the depth a bit, it will not come back as stated by others. I considered drilling a round hole with a Fostener drill bit and cut a plug from a similar timber and glue it in. A bit radical I know but is there another way short of filling it with epoxy with a bug floating in it?