Repair striped holes in body for faceplate

Hey there,

The body on my strat has a few striped holes and the screws work themselves out. How can I repair this? I was thinking about putting some good 2-part epoxy in the holes, then once dry I'll drill the hole the correct size.

Any better alternatives?

Shane

Fill the hole with a piece of doweling with a tiny bit of glue on the end and then re-drill using a bit that is much smaller than the screw. You may want to mark the drill shaft for depth with a little tape to prevent going too deep.

I have a healthy selection of guitar -ish bits of doweling form tooth picks to wooden kebab sticks for just such repairs (i.e. filling holes left from old swapped out tuners) !

Here are some links from previous posts I've made on the subject:

One such post
Second such post

I some times use broken off toothpick ends to fill stripped holes, holds your screw in tight without the hassle of epoxy or glue of some kind.

Don't use epoxy! :eek: The resulting 'plug' of glue will actually be harder than the surrounding wood, and when you try to drill a new pilot hole for the screw, the drill will step off to one side. Just stuffing a piece of flat toothpick into the hole will also move the screw to one side a bit.

Follow Dr_simon's advice. Drill out the stripped hole to fit a round toothpick (mid-shaft, not the tapered end). Cut the toothpick ends off, so you have a straight dowel. Apply wood glue to the toothpick and push it into the hole. After the glue has hardened, trim the dowel flush with the surface of the guitar body. Carefully drill a new pilot hole for the screw. The drill size should be very slightly larger than the minor diameter of the screw. The minor diameter is the distance from the bottom of the thread on one side to the bottom of the thread on the other side. A hole of the right size will allow the full depth of the screw threads to cut into the wood. If the hole is too big, not enough of the thread will be in the wood, and it will soon strip again. If the hole is too small, you risk breaking the screw as you drive it in. :eek:

Don't use epoxy! The resulting 'plug' of glue will actually be harder than the surrounding wood, and when you try to drill a new pilot hole for the screw, the drill will step off to one side.

I never thought about the that. Excellent point.

Today I bought a 1/8" dowel from the craft store. It fits in the stripped hole very well. I am going to cut it to length and give it a try. Should work well.

Thanks for the inout everyone!

Shane