A good method for particleboard furniture repair

by Tom Pawlak — GBI Technical Advisor

Above: Particleboard furniture repair can be tricky when screws strip out. G/5 Five Minute Epoxy Adhesive offers an easy solution to fixing inexpensive furniture when this happens.

I recently broke the leg off an old workshop table. The tabletop was made of particleboard covered with Formica®. The screws holding the leg in place had pulled out and taken chunks of particleboard with them.

I was desperate to use the table later in the day so G/5 Five-Minute Adhesive seemed perfect for the repair. This is a good method for repairing inexpensive particleboard or fiberboard furniture:

Particleboard Furniture Repair Steps with G/5 Five-Minute Adhesive

Remove loose debris
Flip the table over and dig out all loose wood debris in the holes.
Mix and pour G/5 Epoxy
Mix enough G/5 Five-Minute Adhesive to fill the cavities, then pour it in until the cavities are full.
Drill pilot holes
After allowing the epoxy to cure for 10 to 15 minutes, drill pilot holes for the screws in the still somewhat soft G/5 Epoxy.
Quickly reinstall screws
Reinstall the screws immediately, before the epoxy cures too hard. Take care not to overtighten the screws.
Allow the epoxy to cure another 30 minutes
Before using the table, give the G/5 Epoxy another half hour to cure.

Upon further investigation

I was so encouraged by the results of the repair that we decided to do an experiment to compare the pullout strength of screws in particleboard prior to and after being repaired with G/5. Here are the particulars of the test:

The first pullout

The first pullout averaged 313 lb with screws in dry pilot holes.

I installed #7 sheet metal screws (0.191″ diameter) in a dry 3/32″ diameter hole in particle board with 11/16″ of thread embedded. Pullout strength averaged 313 lbs. (2 samples)

The holes in the particleboard were then repaired with G/5 as described above. Reusing the control’s pulled-out sheet metal screws, I cleaned out loose debris, filled the cavity with G/5, allowed it to cure for 10 minutes, drilled pilot holes into epoxy, and re-installed the screws.

The second pullout

The 2nd pullout averaged 667 lb with screws in G/5 Five Minute Adhesive

We allowed all this to cure overnight before pulling the screws. Pullout strength averaged 667 lb, more than double the original pullout strength.

We normally recommend WEST SYSTEM® epoxy for fastener installation because it is so strong. But, for many household repairs, G/5 appears to be more than up to the task.