filling small pin holes

[john lucas]

Well actually I want to fill holes slightly larger than pin holes but both apply. I don't have a pressure pot and sometimes fill larger cracks with epoxy. I often get bubble holes sometimes as large as 1/8" or so, often smaller. I have with some success filled them with thin CA but it always shows a slightly different color. I've tried filling with the same epoxy but the surface tension may be the problem. It looks like it fills it but it's only surface deep and when you shear scrape to level the surface the bubble comes back. Sometimes by poking at it with a thin blade I can get enough penetration to fill it. What do you all do. I usually manage to get them filled enough to finish a bowl but it's always a fight. Any advice. I'm wondering if there is something I can add to the epoxy to reduce the surface tension and get it to flow into the hole. Not sure that's the correct term but I know a water droplet will sit on top of a small hole unless you add a detergent to it and then it will flow in. That's why I used the term surface tension. Don't care what it's called just want to find a solution.

 

[Glenn Lefley]

Might be wise to pick up a cheap pressure pot from harbour freight. Only $99.00 . I dont usually recommend them but you don’t need 60 lbs pressure in them to get rid of those bubbles. 25 would work!

 

[Russ Braun]

How about a clear grain filler?

 

[Richard Coers]

You can reduce the viscosity of the resin by warming it a container in a pan of hot water before adding the catalyst. I use a shop vac on the back side of the wood to pull glue or epoxy through the wood. Done that for decades with my furniture work to repair a splinter, works the same on bowls.

 

[Randy Anderson]

Good question. I have a very large salad bowl on my bench now that is all finished but there is a small 1/16+ size pin hole that goes through. If decorative I would not care but for a potential functional salad bowl I need to fix it. About halfway up the wall but still want to fix. When you hold it up to look at it you can see a light beam coming through the hole. I've used 2 part 5 min epoxy, warm it with a heat gun once you put it in the hole and it settles better. Use a pin to poke it down into the hole a bit. If you tape opposite side then it does as you say and bubbles over the hole. I've tried thick CA as well but not keen on it.

 

[robo hippy]

The medium thickness CA glues will work. I let gravity help it penetrate. So, hole on the up side, and prop the bowl up so it won't roll over and hole is pretty much vertical. Put a drop of the medium CA glue on the top side, and let it sit, no accelerator. It will generally seep all the way through to the other side. Some times I will plug the hole on the lower side with fine saw dust. If it is a deep hole, I will generally chase it with the thin CA glue first, then put a drop of the medium on top. The thin wicks the medium all the way through. I frequently have to add more to the top side because it ends leaving a crater as it dries and cures.

robo hippy

 

[Bill Boehme]

I like using the brown Starbond CA. It is medium thickness and cures slowly enough to get decent filling of small holes and cracks. They use a dye so it's slightly transparent as opposed to an opaque pigment which never looks right. Don't use accelerator or it might make the CA cloudy and possibly too opaque.

 

[john lucas]

heating the mixed glue in a small container with my heat gun seems to be working. I keep looking at pressure pots but I'm only applying epoxy to small areas so I don't no how it would work. What I'm doing to day is making the holes larger with my Dremel and then building a hot glue dam and trying to poke the stuff down in negative areas with the end of a pointy stick. seems to be working.

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

Lets look in a different direction . Instead of liquid think putty. Painters use putty to fill brad holes to paint. As to color what is wrong with contrast . When it is difficult to hide or match color use a contrast and make it stand out. I am thinking epoxy putty.

 

[john lucas]

Epoxy putty would work in some instances. I just finished doing a.bunch of playing with Milliput. You can read my article in the next american Woodturner. However I wrote the article.before Milliput came out with the new colors. My tests as of a month ago taught me it may be good for filling gaps but is not good for bonding 2 pars together. In this piece I'm trying to fix imagine a bark inclusion where the piece is just waiting to blow apart. I a strong bond.

 

[Timothy Allen]

Depending on how big the holes are, I might put an epoxy filler mixture into a syringe to inject it into the holes. For example: https://www.westsystem.com/application-tools/syringes/