Ideas on repairing crooked drawer pulls?

[ElCabong]

After careful measuring and using a jig to drill the holes on a drawer front, I somehow managed to bungled it and now the holes are uneven by about 1/8" off. The drawer front is a stained (dark chocolate) red oak front slab. Before I make another one, I was wondering if there were any tips on saving this one. For example, I was thinking about drilling a larger hole and then using a wooden dowel and flush saw cut it; Or install a dowel but leave some inset and then fill the rest with wood putty for a flush finish then re-stain, top coat and re-drill the hole. 

I really dislike installing pulls because after all the hard work is done milling, cutting, assembling and finishing, the last thing I want to do is mess this up and it's happened more than once and it's a real buzz kill. Thanks for any advice.

 

[jbasen]

Bummer

One idea is to fill the existing holes with dowels, re-drill, and use different pulls that include a back-plate that will cover the mistake.  Nobody but you will ever know.

 

[Ivanhoe]

Not sure what jig you currently use but this one has served me well. Sommerfeld Easy Mark. Sorry, I don't have a better solution than those already suggested.

 

[RKA]

How about a ruler with a center scale?  At least it removes some of the math and has you measuring out from center.

http://www.woodpeck.com/woodworkingrules.html

 

[upscale]

After careful measuring and using a jig to drill the holes on a drawer front, I somehow managed to bungled it and now the holes are uneven by about 1/8" off.

You might consider filling the off center holes and then using handles with that have a wider section butting up against the drawer faces.

Sample handle...

 

[downtheroad]

Our shop does touchup for a lot of high end furniture manufacturers. Mistakes happen to them, too. If it gets past inspection and ships out of the factory or gets damaged in shipping, that's when we get called to see if it can be remedied.

What we would do for a problem like yours is plug it with an 1/8" dowel like others have recommended, but leave it shy of the surface so we could melt in an appropriate colored burn-in fill stick(s). Since it is relatively small, you could also use a colored soft wax fill stick and not have to deal with a burn-in knife/applicator.

Several companies like Mohawk Finishing Products make them. Our shop uses products from a German company, Heinrich König & Co.

 

[ElCabong]

Thank you for all your replies. I'll look into the burn-in sticks. Great suggestion!

 

[semenza]

How large is the base of the pulls?  I Sometimes the base is big enough to simple enlarge the holes so that you can shift the pull around, then tighten in place. You said you are only off by an 1/8". You might only need to shift both holes a 1/16" , depending on the direction (s) it needs to go.

Seth

 

[upscale]

[quote author=downtheroad (s)]. Since it is relatively small, you could also use a colored soft wax fill stick and not have to deal with a burn-in knife/applicator.[/quote]
I agree. I've got a tin of wax fill sticks I bought from Lee Valley Tools at least twenty years ago. They're still going strong.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=20069&cat=1,190,42997

 

[ElCabong]

All:

Since the original hole was 3/16", I ran to the local Michaels Craft store and bought a 3/16" dowel for $0.49 and glued it in shy of the surface. I went to my local lumber/hardware dealer and saw the Mohawk burn-in sticks and they were quite expensive, more so than a new piece of Oak so I took a gamble and added some Famowood filler and stained and top coated. Voila! Barely noticeable as the drawer front is the bottom of the cabinet and the mishapped hole is under the pull. Saved me time. Problem Solved! Thank you FOG members.