BUNGS!

[Jim Cornwell]

A forstner bit makes the best counterbore, by far. It's guided by its outer circumference so it works best without a pilot hole, unlike spur bits. What you get is a true round hole - but there's a small spur in the center of the bit that leaves a small indentation in the bottom of the hole and that helps center the pilot drill. Jim.

[Jim Cornwell]

A forstner bit makes the best counterbore, by far. It's guided by its outer circumference so it works best without a pilot hole, unlike spur bits. What you get is a true round hole - but there's a small spur in the center of the bit that leaves a small indentation in the bottom of the hole and that helps center the pilot drill. Jim.

[Oswego John]

Bungs (plugs) are tapered. Dowels are round with no taper. I have used sliced dowels when plugging other woods. So far, I have never come across teak dowelling.

If you only need a dozen or so bungs, maybe it's best to buy a bag or two from the marine supply.

If you expect to do much plugging, maybe it might pay to buy a plug cutter. They are real cheap. I bought some cutters like shown below quite a few years ago and I still use them.

For those professionals who do a lot of woodwork, you can always purchase a more expensive kit of cutters.

So far, I have mostly used the 3/8" cutter, the 1/2" cutter only a few times.

click on the picture that comes up for more detail.

http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsea ... ug+cutters

Good luck
O J

[mashenden]

Having owned a 1964 wooden boat with teak decks in my past I became pretty good at this:). I found that the local home improvement store (Lowes) sold two sized bung cutters. I would use the smaller one to clean and size the hole, and the larger one with a drill press to cut bungs from scrap teak (as if).

In other words the outer diameter cut of the smaller bit and the inner diameter cut of the larger bit were a perfect match. I remember that the nice thing was that shallow holes could be deepened because the bit would cut around the head of the screw, which could then be screwed in a bit further to deepen the hole (with care not to go too far, of course).

The only real tricky part was holding the drill steady when starting the hole clean-out. The bit would sometimes traveled which would scar the surrounding wood. I am sure some sort of small press could be used if that was a real concern, but I found it was minimized with caution and practice.

These bits were black, cylindrical with a cutting tail that could be sharpened when needed. I highly recommend them, particularly given that they were not overly expensive either.

Edit: Apparently HD has them too: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... =202252123

[Ron M.]

A forstner bit will leave a nice clean accurate hole but has a short centerpoint......sometimes a pain. I've used bradpoint bits for years and they do just as well. They have a long centerpoint and locate the mark quickly and surely.
As for counterbores with step drills in one......Fuller makes a numbered set that's adjustable, but$

Stanley has a less pricey version.....they work ok but not as well as the above mentioned.

[Johnd]

Great ideas all around, thank you all.

I have a Dremel, so may just grind down a bag of the Bungs to the size needed for each hole.

As always, this board's wealth of information is awesome.

Thanks,

John d

[bottomscraper]

I now cut my own plugs, it's a good use for pieces of teak too small
to keep. I find the home cut plugs work better anyway, I find the
factory plugs seem break below the surface when using the sharp
chisel technique. If you don't have a drill press this is your excuse!

I use a countersink with a tapered point drill and stop collar for
doing the whole job of drilling and counter boring.



Images are from Hamilton Marine, part numbers for a 3/8"plug and #8
screw

• countersink #114452
  tapered drill #114281
  stop collar #114251.

They also have a HSS version of the countersink #114486 which is
about twice as much but lasts much longer. They have plenty of other sizes also.

See page 349 of the 2011 catalog for the full selectiion.
http://www.hamiltonmarine.com/t1.asp?page=351

Jamestown Distributers also has a good selection.