This DIY wood filler recipe is easy to make, easy to sand, and saves money. Wood putty has both exterior and interior applications, such as filling dents, cracks, and small holes in finished furniture. Lacquer-based filler is made by mixing sawdust with nitrocellulose lacquer, making it resilient and durable for small projects and large ones like filling gaps in wood flooring.
To make a DIY wood filler, gather cleaned sawdust into a small pile or paper cup, add wood glue, stir with a craft stick, and add more glue until the mixture is a thick putty. Avoid adding too much glue that makes the mixture runny. Pour out a little pile of sawdust onto an expendable surface such as paper and use a toothpick or slender scrap of wood to form a hole in the center.
To fill wood cracks by mixing fine sawdust with wood glue to create a paste, apply the mixture to the cracks, smooth it out, and let it dry. Sand the area before applying the paste. To make wood filler from sawdust, mix a little sawdust into a paste using a binding agent. The resulting paste is used to fill the void in the cracks.
For filling dark timber like ebony and African blackwood, use white wood glue and black graphite from a pencil mixed into a paste. This versatile solution for woodworking projects can dramatically restore damaged trim, molding, or even furniture to its original state.
📹 How to Make Your Own Wood Filler
How to Make Your Own Wood Filler If you find yourself with an unsightly gouge in a piece of wood but you’re out of wood filler, it is …
📹 Wood Filler – Buy it or Make it? / DIY Wood Filler
In this video I show you guys how you can make your own wood filler that will match your project perfectly! Also I compare it to …
The only problem with that trick is that patch wont take stain the way the rest of the wood does. As such, it stands out from the surrounding areas. You are better off applying a wet paper towel to the area followed by a hot clothes iron on top of the towel. This infuses steam into the area which swells the wood fibers back up to the surface.
I’m no woodworker but I work for a furniture company. I get better results with canned woodfiller which seem to be less “sandy”. Only problem is when the crack is a little too wide. Filler contracts when drying and tends to crack itself as well.. solution I found is to fill the crack with wood splinters and glue. Once dry, I’ll then finish the job with filler. I get them cracks to nearly disappear. 🙂
Famo wood putty is a good product and it comes in many different colors and you can inter mix the putty to match the woods you’re filling, weather the wood is raw or has a finish and you can get thinner to thin it depending on the situation! Saw dust and glue has been used for a long time, it’s old school, you must use saw dust that from the wood you’re working with! Good article! 👍
As someone who has been restoring antiques for 45+ years, I think I have a few useful things to add to this discussion. Don’t use any kind of PVA or PU glue to make your own filler. They are plastic and non and don’t take stain or move with the wood. For darker ‘putty’ add hide glue or mucilage to your dust. They aren’t waterproof – and that’s a good thing. For light colored wood, use shellac. It works best if you start with start with powdered shellac (It comes in various warm colors from pale yellow to red.) If you can’t find that, get some clear shellac and let it dry out. Crush the crust to dust and add a tiny amount of denatured alcohol to the dust/shellac powder mix. If you live in a state that doesn’t allow denatured alcohol (like California), you can use 99% isopropyl alcohol, of 100% ethanol (if you don’t drink it all first.) It works best if you bring the putty close-to, but lighter than the final color before final staining. For that search alcohol-based pigmants. That place owned by that rich guy has them, but if you can find them locally, the knowledge you gain from the guy behind the counter will be worth the extra few dimes.
I like the DIY filler best. Why? … I don’t have a busy shop like you and only need filler occasionally. Every time I buy expensive store-bought filler and try to use it a second time, it’s dried out in the can. I always have glue and scrap wood on hand… Also, don’t forget that you can mix a bit of water-based stain in with your filler to match wood colors. Happy filling!
I have some nail holes in our rear 6×6 deck posts that are on our porch . I removed the wood slats & 2×4 `s that left the holes in the posts after removing them & we are going to put a cable system in its place … doing this like you made the wood filler, would this work well to fill the nail holes that we have instead of the wood putty in a can?
how toxic smelling is epoxy. I don’t really have any filtration or air movement in my garage (rental). Thank you for this very informative article. I can open the garage door and what about temperature for working with epoxy? I don’t live in an overly cold climate but usually in the 40’s during the winter.
interesting that they all turned out a little darker once finish was on. I’m doing some homemade filler later today on a mahogany piece, sort of medium colored wood. I’m wondering if adding in some pine sawdust with the mahogany would get a better color match? For now I think I’ll just do straight mahogany sawdust, but if it turns out a bit darker maybe in the future I’ll experiment with lightening it.