DIY Wood Filler

Ron_E

I'm working on a project with solid walnut trim and I want to make my own matching walnut wood filler.  I've make wood filler before by mixing matching saw dust with wood glue and that works. The problem is that you end up with filler that's really hard. Anyone have any suggestions for a binder that would be easier to sand like most commercial fillers?

Ron

kenrhodes

I use epoxy with clear finishes no filler.  A clear hole is harder to spot than mismatched filler.
 I buy wood filler for jobs that are getting stained.

dcibel

Walnut is hard as rocks. I used epoxy as a filler with my Bamboo baffle and liked that over any "wood filler" product. You can colour the epoxy or mix sawdust into it to match. I'd imagine the epoxy to sand about equally as well as the walnut itself. Any off the shelf "wood filler" product I tried has been far too soft. Ideally you want something that's equally as hard as the wood you're using so that sanding removes material at the same rate.

dynamo

If you have to use commercial filler, I have had great luck with Timbermate. 

Ron_E

I'll give the epoxy a try.

Ron

Bryan@MAC

This is a great question for somebody like @BobBarkto   - he’s really come up with some awesome solutions in the past. Hopefully he sees this. 

dcibel

Digging out some photos, my bamboozled project used some counter top board 1.5" thick with some serious voids in the middle. This board was high grade exterior with a low quality core. Fine as a counter top, but not the best edge grain for a speaker. The worst part is a year or so later I actually used some bamboo counter top board for a counter top which was higher grade material overall.

This test fit photo you can see the voids in the side of the board.

I stuffed sawdust in the holes, the topped with epoxy. This worked well to prevent excessive use of epoxy filling the gap. This is what it looked like after being filled and sanded.

And after some Tung Oil for the final product. Not ideal but I'm super happy with how it turned out. Ideally the board would have a higher quality core.

MartyH

I think it's terrific!