gap filling

[Sculptured Box]

How do you fill your gaps?

Recently zenwood said that he used a concoction of talcum powder, sawdust and glue to fill gaps.

My experimentation involves the use of Baking Soda, saw dust and Super glue. Finding the correct mix proportions and how to work with the super glue, is the first task. As you know super glue will begin to set the second the oxygen is excluded, therefore it is impossible to mix the three together and then apply it. So I've packed the dry mix into the gap (here I am talking about 1-2mm spaces) and then applied super glue to the area. In theory it should also work with large gaps.

The real question can only be established over time - will the mix remain in the gap as a permenent addition?

What are your gap fillers?

[Doughboy]

Tony

I seem to remember my grandfather using a ww glue and saw dust mix to fill gaps. He was a man that never did things by half.... a tradey who was did three apprenticeships if I recall correctly. Mind you things may be different 50 years on, although fine work is still fine work.:)

Pete

I still have a display cabinet he made as an apprentice. Dovetails and dowel joints all hand done...... more patience and skill than me I am afraid:o

[urban-wombat]

I read the other day about using sawdust 'n glue.. got me thinking.. after being told by one of the local woodwork experts.. "make sure you clean up all glue line..because if you don't the varnish coat will look like crap" because I'm not very good at woodwork this isn't a problem .. I did make a real mess cutting one of my projects so rather than fill the unwanted gap.. I cut out a diamond shape and then filled it with glue and gold mica..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v613/ColRay04/DSCF7832.jpg
Col

[ddeen]

I have been using epoxy and fine wood dust. I never stain the wood and just use oil finish. By the time the wood is oiled the problem area is visible but blends in.

[Auld Bassoon]

A small but important point: Never use a water based glue (eg PVA) with any wood that has a high tanin level (eg Oak), as it will go black...

[DPB]

Surely we're not talking about joint gaps. The way to fill these is to re-mill timber so there are no such gaps. I can't imagine any box maker living with this kind of inacuracy.

Personally, the joy I find in box making is making as close to perfect joints as possible. Small pieces just can't sustain the kind of inacuracy that would create a 1 - 2mm gip that needs filling. And frankly unless hidden, I can't imagine this being acceptable on larger furniture pieces.

But if we are talking about addressing natural gaps, or 'flaws' in the timber, then this is another thing.

My preference is to make a feature of these, but if this is not possible, I like to fill gaps or holes using epoxy with a darkening agent. I also like the look of adding metalic filings or similar but truthfully, I haven't tried this yet.

[RufflyRustic]

Surely we're not talking about joint gaps. The way to fill these is to re-mill timber so there are no such gaps. I can't imagine any box maker living with this kind of inacuracy.
......


Erhmmmm :o

Not 'living' exactly, but my darrad box is full of these 1-2mm gaps, probably why it's not finished yet....:rolleyes:

There's always the next box though :)

cheers
Wendy

[DPB]

:)Right on, Wendy.

I'm not for a moment saying that I don't make the same kinds of joints. I just don't persist with them by trying to hide the gaps with filler.

With boxes, this kind of error is just too noticable. And since we are talking about small pieces of timber, the cost of re-doing the joint isn't overly expensive.

I'll bet the first thing that all of us look at when reviewing the items we've made is the errors. In fact, if glaringly obvious, they will take away any satisfaction there is in making the piece.

But note my tag line below.:o

[RufflyRustic]

I keep looking at the 2 mm plus gaps in the joins and wondering which way I'll go with it, either fill or redo, or fill and keep as a reminder why not to.... :rolleyes: Of course I can look at it as a good reason why I need another tool :D (ok so that's really practice :o )


Great tag line DPB


Baking soda, sawdust and superglue.... hmmm I wonder if I can build the filler part a level at a time so each level matches the wood it will be close too....

Cheers
Wendy

[Lignum]

I use Shellac as i have found that the best and quickest filler. And try substituting Plaster of Paris mixed dry with pigment powder for baking soda and use your super glue with that:D

[zenwood]

Recently zenwood said that he used a concoction of talcum powder, sawdust and glue to fill gaps.

The talcum powder recipe I mentioned was the same as the one on Ubeaut's website for grain-filling, rather than gap-filling, which is a separate issue. The grain filler is a mixture of talcum powder (non-scented) and shellac. No sawdust or glue.

For gap-filling, I have used:
1. sawdust and aquadhere (worked OK, but far from invisible)
2. Wood putty (did an excellent job filling some natural voids in my jarrah zig-zag tables),
3. casting resin (good to turn a void into a feature).

[sawdustmike]

It depends on the gap.... I use pva mixed with very fine dust (like that you get from 180+ paper) that is collected from the board that I'm working on. The problem with all fillers is the staining of the fibres around the hole, which is unavoidable on raw timber, when you apply the filler. You have to sand those fibres away to get rid of the stain thereby leaving a low spot, which shows up after applying a varnish. An easy solution is to put a sealing coat of laquer on first. While you will never get the perfect match, filler has no texture, the colour should be close, and providing the gap is small and with the grain, unnoticable.

My experience is that you can spend an inordinate amount of time and effort patching, when your effort would have been better served doing the errant piece again or selecting a better piece of timber in the first place. I know that this is not always practible, so common sense is required - whatever that is.