What is the proper adhesive for holding teak bungs in so they can be
dug out again if you want to remove the trim? I can't believe I've
spent a life around boats without having this answer right at hand.
Too much steel and aluminum.

--

Roger Long

Roger Long wrote:
What is the proper adhesive for holding teak bungs in so they can be
dug out again if you want to remove the trim? I can't believe I've
spent a life around boats without having this answer right at hand.
Too much steel and aluminum.

People use everything, varnish, white glue, yellow glue, west epoxy,
boatlife.

I use yellow glue (white glue on interior).

Maybe I'll learn something new from the other answers.

On Mon, 08 May 2006 21:32:07 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:

What is the proper adhesive for holding teak bungs in so they can be
dug out again if you want to remove the trim? I can't believe I've
spent a life around boats without having this answer right at hand.
Too much steel and aluminum.

Since they aren't structural almost anything will do. I've found
"Weldbond" to be as good as anything. I don't particularly like
polyurethanes like "Gorilla glue" because of their tendency to foam up
while setting, and mixing up epoxy just to use a few drops is
wasteful. Removing the plug intact is almost impossible of course. I
usually split them with a tap from a small wood chisel.

If it's interior woodwork, just dip the ends of the plugs into varnish, let
it soak in a bit, give them a wipe so they don't drip while you're inserting
them, and tap them in. Let them dry, cut them off, varnish over them, and
then when you need to get them back out they remove easily with any of the
usual techniques. The varnish as adhesive keeps them from showing much of a
glue line under the varnish top coat. Nowadays I cut tapered plugs for this
application, using the Lee Valley tapered plug cutters. If you cut your
plugs from offcuts of the boards you made the woodwork from, the plugs will
just about disappear.

My favorite way of removing plugs that I've put in this way is with a
gimlet. Twist it in a couple of turns and withdraw. The plug should come
right out.

Don't use this technique outdoors, such as on a deck or on the hull of a
carvel-planked boat. For that, Weldwood glue is pretty good above the
waterline, epoxy below, although some people seem to think epoxy is better
all the way around. I've done it both ways and nowadays almost always use
epoxy, thickened with colloidal silica. In either case, for exterior work,
the quickest way to get the plugs out is to drill down the middle of the
plug with a Forstner bit, maybe an eighth-inch smaller than the diameter of
the plug, until the bit just hits the screw. Then excavate the remainder
with a 1/4" butt chisel and a hammer. Follow up with a jeweler's graving
tool to clear the screw slot. I've done thousands of plugs this way, and
believe me if there was a faster way I would have found it by now.

Tom Dacon

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
What is the proper adhesive for holding teak bungs in so they can be dug
out again if you want to remove the trim? I can't believe I've spent a
life around boats without having this answer right at hand. Too much steel
and aluminum.

--

Roger Long

I've always used teak colored life caulk. Works well for me.

I use Titebond II waterproof glue. Yellow, holds great, removable if
you ever need to. Several hundred bungs over the last 3-4 years and
they're all right where I left them.

Keith wrote:
I use Titebond II waterproof glue. Yellow, holds great, removable if
you ever need to. Several hundred bungs over the last 3-4 years and
they're all right where I left them.

I think he wants to remove them without tearing great holes in his lovely
teak.

"Dennis Pogson" wrote

I think he wants to remove them without tearing great holes in his
lovely
teak.

Exactly, although it's far from lovely teak.


--

Roger Long

Roger Long wrote:
"Dennis Pogson" wrote


I think he wants to remove them without tearing great holes in his
lovely
teak.


Exactly, although it's far from lovely teak.



Go to a hardware store and get a "screw starter" -- Has a screwdriver
handle, but the end is a hardened screw tip -- Put the point on the
plug, bump it to get started, give it a few turns, and pull -- the plugs
pop right out