Screw holes; to fill or to plug?

[pcatterall]

There always seems to be a bit of carpentry needed on my 1974 boat. My aim is to produce work that looks reasonable and will last. I never seem to have the right size wooden pellets around for filling screw holes or the epoxy to fix them in.
I have found that the right colour wood filler, properly sanded down makes a fairly neat round plug which doesnt look too bad even under varnish.
Apart from asthetics is this method fit for purpose or will the filler dry and fall out or something??

 

[DinghyMan]

I use hundreds of these for non-boat use.

 

[Alrob]

i will give you a trade secret here but dont tell anyone /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

fill the screwhole with white silicon then sand the whole area - the dust adheres to wet silicon and hey presto perfect colour match

only works on new wood tho

if this gets out there could be trouble !!!

 

[roger]

Our local market has a cheap tool dealer who has sets of plug cutters so you can make plugs out of any wood you like.
Unfortunately you will need a pillar drill or similar to use them.
Hand holding is a real nono.