I have a nice oak desk chair that's on caster wheels. The plastic wheel inserts used by the manufacturer broke up and crumbled, of course, because that's what plastic does when used in high-stress applications it shouldn't be used in.
I bought some replacement wheels with metal inserts, but the inserts are 3/8 inch while the originals were 5/8 inch, so the drilled holes are too large to begin with, plus they've been worn by the wheels wiggling about once the plastic inserts broke up.
This photo demonstrates what I'm talking about:
I see two solutions here:
- Fill the holes with wood filler and drill new holes to fit.
- Fill the holes with wood filler and then insert the new metal bases while the wood filler is still wet, basically gluing them in.
The downside of option 1 is drilling four identically plumb holes with a hand drill. I don't own a drill press.
The downside of option 2 is I would need to fill the inserts with something to keep wood filler out while I'm inserting, but that's no big deal.
Am I overlooking other options? How should I proceed?
Best Answer
Best option - drill hole out to 3/4", cover a 3/4" wooden dowel with wood glue, stuff it in the hole, wait for glue to dry, cut it off flush, drill new hole.
Wood filler is not a quality repair you should expect to last.
You might have enough room to drill your small hole beyond the current hole.