help with screws

[madgrrl100]

I am trying to build a dolls house kit for my mum, but with great problems. it's made from MDF, and on screwing in the hinges, they just came out. the wood insode the screw hole has turned to dust and now the screws are too small for the hole. What can I fill the hole with so that I may reattach the hinge?

Please help, it's her birthday in 2 weeks.:confused:

[davo453]

MDF just doesn’t have the strength to take any weight on a standard hinge/screw, either use plywood or you are faced with using the kitchen cabinet type hinge which is made for use in MDF etc

Cheers


Dave

[silentC]

Sounds like you have bought some kind of kit dollhouse. If I were you, I'd take it back where I bought it and ask for my money back.

However, if you want to persist with it, and lacking any other suggestions you could try slightly larger screws and/or you could apply a bit of PVA glue or Araldite to the hole before putting in the screw. It's highly likely that whaever you do along these lines is going to fail at some point down the track though.

Is the hinge screwing into the edge of the board or into the face? If into the face, another alternative might be to get some small bolts that will fit through the hinges and drill the hole all the way through. That's more likely to last.

[Sir Stinkalot]

If the screw is into the end grain of the MDF (where is the MDF endgrain???) you could glue a strip of pine on first and then screw through the pine to the mdf. The pine will be structually bound to the MDF and the screws can attach into the pine. I assume that it would be painted so the pine would not be visible.

[Rocker]

You cannot expect screws to hold properly in MDF. A possible solution to your problem is to drill some 10 mm holes in the MDF; glue 10 mm dowels in the holes; then drill pilot holes for the screws through the dowels; then screw in the screws, as in this diagram: