How do you repair worm holes?

[clay shooter]

Before I start the cabinet restoration on my pye 48a, I was wondering how others repair worm holes in there cabinets, mine is particularly bad on the bottom( which at the moment doesn't t bother me ) with a couple of dozen or so on one side.
I am considering a two pack type filler but colour match may be a problem

[high_vacuum_house]

Difficult to eliminate them visually altogether but there are various furniture repair fillers and hard waxes to try.
Worth experimenting on part of a cabinet where it cannot easily be seen. Try and make them slightly darker than the surrounding veneer otherwise they stand out terribly. Have a look around some DIY shops decorating sections for readily available materials.

Christopher Capener

[clay shooter]

I have seen the scratch filler type crayons in many places , I wonder if they would take over filler and then French polish over that

[paulsherwin]

Make sure the wormies (and eggs) are all dead before starting work

[Phil G4SPZ]

I have used wax scratch repair crayons to good effect. They are available in a range of colours.

[dave walsh]

I'm surprised there isn't a sticky on this given the number of times it comes up
and the variety of helpful responses [at least ten pages in the search]. Mind you that's under "Woodworm". I was thinking Astro Physics at first. Too much Brian Cox perhaps?

Dave W

[ms660]

If the insides of the holes are dark/dirty looking then the beasties have probably long gone, if the insides of the holes look clean or there's any sign of frass then they might still be in there, if so then give a good dowse with woodworm killer and leave to dry thoroughly, fill the holes using coloured wax crayon/stick, force it in well and apply plenty and scrape off any excess, a quick buff up, if the wax has sunk then keep redoing until flush and you're happy with it, plenty of sources for the proper wax/sticks, just Google or Ebay.

Lawrence.

[frankmcvey]

Filler sticks come in a couple of varieties. There are the softish wax sticks, similar in texture to a child's wax crayons (which can also be used in extremis!). In most cases these will be fine if the surface being filled is not subject to wear: you might use them on the sides of a cabinet, for instance, but not on a table top. They come in a wide range of shades and you can scrape shavings from different sticks into a teaspoon and melt them together (I use a cheap disposable gas cigarette lighter) to achieve the exact colour you want. Then you simply pour it into the hole/gouge you are repairing, give it a few seconds to harden and level it off with a piece of thin plastic (an old store card, somewhat thinner than a credit card is ideal) . Gently rub it down with a fine cloth (old cotton pillowcase is a good source) stretched over a small block of wood to level it and give it a slight polish. These sticks are intended for use on an already-finished surface; you wouldn't want to try finishing over your filled holes.

The second variety are sometimes known as shellac sticks and are a hard composition, exactly the same stuff as old-fashioned sealing-wax sticks, except that they come in a variety of wood shades. You'd use these in areas where you want more a more permanent, robust repair than the soft sticks allow. They're easy enough to apply, just melt the sticks with a coolish soldering iron directly into the holes. Levelling down is not quite so easy; I use a one-edged craft razor-blade as a small cabinet scraper, with masking tape wrapped round it so only a small section of the cutting edge is exposed, then very fine abrasive paper, again wrapped round a wooden block. The technique is shown here. You can also use the trick of melting different colours together in a spoon to get the right shade.

This filler sets very hard and can be finished over; being shellac, it will take a high shine if needed. If you're filling an area larger than a wormhole, you can even use your razor blade to carve small lines in your repaired area to emulate the texture of the woodgrain surrounding the repair. Properly done the repair will be invisible, even under the closest inspection.

They're eye-wateringly expensive, but last forever. I'm still using a set of Liberon sticks I bought 13 years ago.

HTH

Cheers,

Frank

[frankmcvey]

Just found this YouTube video on shellac stick repair. Good description, but the resolution isn't brilliant.

YouTube

Cheers,

Frank

[clay shooter]

The worms should be dead by now, the cabinet has had 3 coats of wood worm killer and will have a fourth tonight, I think I shall go down the shellac route as I intend to French polish the whole cabinet, but as can be seen from the picture I'm not Sure what the colour was from the factory I'm guessing that as the ply is a sappeli type of veneer , it would have been a golden red colour

[paulsherwin]

It would have been dark brown. Radios of that era were almost always sprayed with a dark cellulose lacquer. That example has lost a lot of the lacquer and what remains has faded.

[clay shooter]

Or quite possibly the wood worm have Eaten it like the bottom of the cabinet !

[McMurdo]

I found an entire kit of wax filler crayons and 'marker pens' from Home Bargains. Was only a few quid, I've seen the individual pens selling for more than that online.