Is This Better Than Epoxy?! (at filling knots and voids in wood)

When it comes to filling knots and voids, epoxy is stinky and gross. And who has 8+. hours to wait for it to harden?!
Polyamide fillers offer a much quicker way to fill voids, with no epoxy stank.

For consumables, take a look at Tecbond 7718 - thats what the knottec brand uses, and it is often cheaper than 'wood repair' brand.

[hassleoffa]

I love epoxy ... as long as I can't see it after I'm done.

[MelbourneMaker]

Ive been seeing so many ads for this stuff, so thanks for testing it! Love your work

[Parafinn]

I too own this system. One tip I'd give is: Keep all those multi coloured lengths of filler you get when changing colours - they are perfect for any filling jobs that will get painted :)

[tomarmstrong]

Been ware of this type of thing, but this is first video I've seen that actually went through what it really was and how it works. Thank you.

[morrismurray]

I was looking at this but wanted a more neutral review (not one paid by them) and knew where to buy it in Oz. Thanks for this! I also hate epoxy due to its “leaking around the knot. Now I want to try it.

[lafamillecarrington]

I didn't know about it, and am very happy to have heard your comments. I don't do much filling and don't have serious time constraints, so will probably stick with epoxy. But it is nice to know what's out there!

[raybod]

Wood glue with saw dust used to fill gaps and holes is cheap and work wells. A piece of plastic with a weight can leave the surface fairly flat. It normally dries within a couple hours.

[Clintotron]

Excellent information in a digestible presentation. Thank you. I think this is exactly the solution I needed.

[yislam]

To reuse the scrapped-off excess you could use a plastic weld repair tool such as that used for broken car bumpers. It's basically a soldering iron with a triangular head.

[DKWalser]

Very interesting. I worked in a furniture mill to put myself through university. At the mill, we used hot melt glue to seal pitch pockets and fill around loose knots. It was quick, simple, and cheap. However, we kept the glue below the surface of the wood and used wood putty to fill the last 1/16". All of the joints in the furniture would be puttied before finish sanding, so using putty didn't take any additional time for drying. (Back then, we didn't call attention to such repairs by using a contrasting filler as is popular today. We tried to make the repairs blend in.)

This stuff seems to be even quicker than the process I'm familiar with. It looks like it should work well. However, if I wanted the repair to blend in rather than stand out, I'd be tempted to use the method I described above. It still works.

[gsadlerdavid]

good stuff, might buy after all my epoxy is used up.

[FixitFingers]

Clever move by hammer roo to bring this to the Aussie market. I doubt however it will be long before Bangood sells one for $5. Pretty simple system to copy.

[mitchkelleher]

Similarly, you can get a plastic welder for the same thing and you can choose the plastic. Also comes in handy for, well, welding plastic. Another method I've used is: melting small scrap bits of ABS plastic with acetone in a small glass jar. Once melted to a consistency of about peanut butter, I put acetone on the wood where I want to patch to help the melted plastic soak in, then goop it on. I've done this to fix torn out threads of a threaded insert, then reinserted the insert while the plastic was still melted. This is a decent torque application and it's worked like thickened epoxy, but much easier to smooth out (and almost free). I don't know how long it takes to dry in comparison since I just leave stuff overnight. Acetone evaporates quickly, but how long until it's sufficiently solid to clean up, I couldn't say. I think ABS can be had in different colors, but I wouldn't buy it just to use for this purpose and black is the most readily found, so keep that in mind for visual or finishing concerns.

[michaelallen]

This reminds of how I use to melt polyethylene six-pack rings to repair gouges in snow skis. I never had one to pop out.

[bradbarnes]

Polyamide is a type of hot melt that is used for moulding the plugs on the ends of your smartphone cables, for example. It gives a slightly tactile feel and is very durable. In my opinion, and I sell this stuff, $44 for 8 x 150mm of specially moulded and packaged sticks is not too bad. If you were an industrial user and bought several tonnes per year of pellets you would be doing well to pay much less than $70/kg. Plus you would need some moderately costly low pressure hot melt moulding equipment to do it efficiently

[PGIFilms]

What ever happened to just using sawdust mixed with wood glue to fill gaps/dents and then sanding/plane-ing the surface after it dried? 🤔 It's one of the few tricks I remember my woodshop instructor teaching us nearly 35 years ago to hide the countersunk holes in our project.

[sheilbwright]

What about a soldering station, the ones with digital temperature setter? If it worked it would be like the old plumber's soldering bars only using what you need.

[Therealphantomzero]

I've been using this for a while especially to fill cabinet holes when painting kitchen cabinets. Saves a ton of time. It doesn't get flat flat but a bit of condo and little extra primer takes care of that. In your situation i don't thing it needs to be flat flat, you can get away with that on stained or clear coated stuff. Hey thing is to make sure to sand before and scrape after.

[scottmasson]

Can you melt it using a kitchen blow torch like shellac sticks?

[DownUnderWoodWorks]

Hey Paul, I’ve seen some woodworkers use those sticks and just melt them with a flame, drip the filler into the void and use the heat sink. Seems to work fine and no gun required. Have you tried it that way?