Two mistakes I need advice on - holes & waterstain

[Matt Day]

I'm 99% done with a chest of drawers I've been working on for a while. Unfortunately I made a stupid mistake and mislocated two holes for one of the drawer pulls! Now I need to do my best to correct it somehow. The wood is white oak, with two coats of Minwas wipe on poly. I've read about mixing sawdust from the same material with glue as a patch, and I've also read a bit about color matching with fillers. What would you all recommend in this situation?

I supposed I coud make some plugs, apply two "coats" of poly to them, then insert them? Then maybe use the sawdust technique if necessary?

[Matt Day]

The next problem came happened in the area I was using to finish. Turns out there is a slight leak in the roof and some rain puddled up on the top and splashed a bit. What's the best approach here? I would guess sand down and reapply some of poly. I do have some Liberon Ring Remover which I haven't used yet, if that would work.

[Art Mulder]

I'm 99% done with a chest of drawers I've been working on for a while. Unfortunately I made a stupid mistake and mislocated two holes for one of the drawer pulls! Now I need to do my best to correct it somehow. The wood is white oak, with two coats of Minwas wipe on poly. I've read about mixing sawdust from the same material with glue as a patch, and I've also read a bit about color matching with fillers. What would you all recommend in this situation?

I supposed I coud make some plugs, apply two "coats" of poly to them, then insert them? Then maybe use the sawdust technique if necessary?

Matt...

My thoughts:
1- replace the drawer front. The patch will always be visible.

2- replace the drawer pulls with ones that have a wider base to cover the holes. Maybe something like this.

3- you could do something in wood also - get some thin veneer and make an oval or football shaped piece to go under all the pulls, it'll cover the holes

4- Take off the drawer, and run a dado across the face of it, and then inset a contrasting wood -- if you can't hide it, make it a design feature.

[Jim Becker]

Replacing the drawer front as Art suggested is the best solution. Another option is to use a small plug cutter to make plugs from scrap of the same material you used for your project to try and "knit" in patches...you will likely need to use a very fine brush and artists colors to blend in the grain. The worst solution is to try and use any kind of commercial or shop prepared filler...it will stick out big-time.

[Matt Day]

Thanks guys.

I'm leaning toward the plugging method. Thanks for the suggestion of replacing the hardware, I didn't think of that, but I don't want to spend another $100+ on the piece. I really, really don't want to have to make a new drawer front, especially since it's dovetailed and glued together already. I don't think I could remove the front without destroying the entire drawer. If I don't like the plug and it bugs me, maybe sometime down the line I'd make a new drawer for it.

This chest of drawers is for me, not for a client or family member or anything, and believe me I know where the other minor mistakes are so I'm not overly concerned about it but I do want to make the effort to fix it.

[Steve Schoene]

Following up with the plug idea. The plug should really come out of the same board or tree as the drawer front. You also need to work really hard to find just the right spot to cut the plug so you match the grain as close as possible. That spot may come in the dead center of a 12" wide 6' long board--don't try to save a bit by taking it on the edge. You may still have to paint in a little grain, but try to avoid having to do that.

[Matt Day]

Thanks guys.

Any tips on the waterstains?

[Matt Day]

Thanks guys.

Any tips on the waterstains?

Anyone???...

[Jim Becker]

I can't help you on the water stains, Matt...outside of suggesting refinishing. This is something I've not every dealt with, although with my kids, I'm sure it will happen at some point. Thank goodness shellac is easy to massage!