How to Make Wood Plugs

There are LOTS of ways to join wood. One tried and true method is to use screws to fasten parts together. But this can leave screws heads showing and, in most cases, you don’t want screw heads as a decorative element in your project. No problem, we can take care of that. It’s a fairly simple matter of knowing how to make wood plugs that will cover the screw heads.

Drilling the screw holes

Getting this process right starts with correctly drilling for the screws. Use a countersink set that, in one step, drills the correct hole for the screw AND leaves a hole that a plug can fit into.

Cloak of invisibility

Use a screw plug cutter to cut the plugs from the same material you’re using for your project. If you’re careful, the plugs will be nearly invisible. Or, use a contrasting material and make the plug decorative.

Shearing the plugs

Yep, you could sand the plugs flush but you’ll save time, and it’s really rewarding, to use a sharp chisel and trim the plugs close before doing any sanding. If the chisel work doesn’t go well and you end up with an Oops, don’t sweat it. We’ll show you how to fix that.

Can we plug pocket holes?

If you’re using pocket hole joinery on your projects we can apply a similar idea. Hiding pocket holes with plugs is easy to do, and you can make custom plugs to add decorative details. You just need to know how to make wood plugs for those specific holes.

Other joinery methods

There are so many ways to put wood together. With such a huge array of joints and joinery available, we’re happy to provide you with the how-to you need to add joints to your woodworking arsenal.