Removing plugs from woodwork

[captain465]

I am going to refinish a 35 year old boat's interior. Some of the wood sections of the interior are held in place with screws and those ho;es are plugged with wooden plugs. (Mahogany)
What is the best way to remove the plugs without damaging the surrounding wood, and still be able to remove the screws?

[Orion Jim]

They are known as “bungs”. Just drive a sheet metal screw down the center and they will pop out. Much simpler than you may have imagined.

[billknny]

Drill a proper sized pilot hole in the middle of the plug. Screw in a long wood screw so the point of the screw bears down on the middle of the screw under the plug. Keep turning. The threads will pull up on the plug, extracting it neatly.

This works best if the plugs were installed properly in the first place. A traditional woodworker would "glue" in such plugs with varnish. It would hold as long as needed, but was also easily extracted when required.

If they were installed by an amateur hack, it is likely as not they were installed with the strongest glue he had at hand, and you'll have a problem.

If they refuse to be extracted neatly, you'll likely need to drill oversized holes with a Forstner bit. They will do a neat and clean job.

[john61ct]

Try gluing a bit of dowel or chopstick with a tiny drop of 4200 or similar to the surface,

wiggle a needle or tip of an exacto blade around the edge,

might be able to pull it out clean?

[rbk]

Originally Posted by billknny

Drill a proper sized pilot hole in the middle of the plug. Screw in a long wood screw so the point of the screw bears down on the middle of the screw under the plug. Keep turning. The threads will pull up on the plug, extracting it neatly.

This works best if the plugs were installed properly in the first place. A traditional woodworker would "glue" in such plugs with varnish. It would hold as long as needed, but was also easily extracted when required.

If they were installed by an amateur hack, it is likely as not they were installed with the strongest glue he had at hand, and you'll have a problem.

If they refuse to be extracted neatly, you'll likely need to drill oversized holes with a Forstner bit. They will do a neat and clean job.

This^ plus it’s a good idea to take the old varnish off at the bung, somethimes it will take material with it from around the hole. You can get pretty precise with heat and a scraper.

[dkenny64]

here's a tip..
if they are glued in..really glued in..


try the screw first..it help remove some..


but then what?


2 days ago I faced this problem..the bungs were glued in... most likely with epxoy.


I found a #20 torx bit in a drill allowed me to clean out the rest of the wood bung and all the glue down to the screw head.. since the torx bit is flat on the end it didn't damage the screw head..

using a box cutter knife I got enough of the glue out of the screw head to remove the screws. only the ones that were stripped inside didn't come out.


-dkenny64

[roverhi]

I use a 1/4" or #12 hex head screw with the appropriate nut driver bit in my battery powered screw driver. The nut driver and hex screw screw gives you control of the wobble on the fastener that you don't have with a typical Phillips head screw. Center the screw on the bung and screw it in. It will usually pull out the bung clean. If it doesn't, it will remove a goodly portion of the bung. Remove the rest with careful force prying around the circumfefence with a 1/4" chisel. Be careful when screwing out the bung that it doesn't take some of the surrounding wood with it.

[coopec43]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WyeTu6m7ms

[Terra Nova]

Refinish in place. There is no need whatsoever to remove the bungs.

Where un-glued bungs absolutely must be removed, drive a flat-blade screwdriver into the bung and twist.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Try gluing a bit of dowel or chopstick with a tiny drop of 4200 or similar to the surface,

wiggle a needle or tip of an exacto blade around the edge,

might be able to pull it out clean?

Have you actually tried this? I'm pretty sure it won't work. Not least because who has time to let the glue set?


When removing some teak for refinishing, I used the small hole + woodscrew technique which usually worked; if not I carefully drilled while staying within the original hole diameter, and the rest of the plug was then easy to pick out.

[Dougtiff]

The correct size leather punch works well, if the screw technique doesn't, doesn't bugger up the hole.

[bailsout]

I just use my 1/4” chisel. Insert cutting edge parallel to bung’s grain with some light taps and pry out the pieces. Haven’t tried this with epoxied bungs. If epoxied, heat up the bungs first with heat gun. Might help.

[chris95040]

Originally Posted by rbk

This^ plus it’s a good idea to take the old varnish off at the bung, somethimes it will take material with it from around the hole. You can get pretty precise with heat and a scraper.

Definitely remove the varnish from the bung and surrounding area first. Makes life a lot easier. Heat gun and flat scraper, takes 10 seconds.

But I like TN's idea better: Do nothing and refinish in place if possible.

[WanderingStar39]

I've had success drilling out the bung with a bit just smaller than the bung diameter, then scraping out the remnants.

[Cheechako]

The drilling method works great IF they are not glued. If they are, leave them and finish in place. If the existing finish is thick, they may not come out clean either,. My advice: finish in place unless they come out fast and easy.