Miller Dowels Replacing Screws

The workbench we build in the “Workbench in a Weekend” class is made up of five assemblies that are glued together, with #8 screws holding the parts together as the glue dries.

The screws in the leg assemblies might seem unsightly to some. (They do to me!) And the screws inside the top and side assemblies might be

lying in wait right where you want to make a hole for a holdfast, bench dog, or vise. Just a few weeks ago, I ruined one of my beloved Wood Owl augers this way.

The good news is that once the glue is cured, it ought to be fine to remove the screws; that shouldn't weaken the bench assemblies, assuming you put in enough glue, and the screws drew the parts together tightly enough when you drove them in.

If you remove the screws, obviously their holes are left behind. Unfilled, they're even uglier than they were with screws in them. Fill them with putty and they'll look fine. Better yet, fill them with dowels and nobody will blink an eye.

If appearance is all you're concerned with (and you have a drill press), get yourself a tapered plug cutter and just cover up the outer part of the screw hole with a 3/8” plug - - - that's the standard counterbore size for #8 screws if you're using a Fuller or Forest City counterboring/countersinking/screw drill. You can even make the tapered plugs out of matching scraps from your project.

I would rather keep some of the strength of the screw after I remove it, and that's why I like using Miller Dowels. Their stepped profile matches the drill bit you use to prepare the way for them, and since the “1X” size is slightly bigger than a #8 screw, you can make a neat new spot for them. The Miller drill will naturally follow the “wound channel” left by the wood screw. Mark Duginske passed this trick to me a couple years ago and I have found it to work quite well, as long as you bring the drill to full speed & advance it slowly as the head section meets the surface of your workpiece.

Note that Miller's 1X dowels are longer than the thickness of the bench front and back, so if you use them there, you'll need to use 2/3 of the 1X dowel instead of the whole thing. An alternative is to also use Miller's Mini-X dowels, which are almost exactly the size of #8 screws, but have a smaller head, so while they won't poke through the outer surface of your apron, there will be a tiny ring of a gap around their heads when you drive them home. No big deal; just don't use the Mini-X to replace a #8 screw on a surface that shows.

Assuming you have a good glue joint to begin with, the added strength of the Miller Dowel approach shouldn't be necessary. But to someone with my belt-and-suspenders mindset, they give a little extra assurance that my workbench is solid wood, and put together to stay.