Holes in Pinball strip out all the time, because steel threads are harder than wood fibers.

95% of all stripped holes are for #6 or #8 screws.

Lucky for us, Bamboo Shish-K-Bob skewers are exactly the right size to fill these holes in a single step (no need to keep adding toothpick after toothpick).

Skewers are generally poorly graded, so you often get a variety of diameters in a bag. This actually works in our favor when we are looking for a nice fit.

A whole bag of Skewers is $1, and it will last most of you guys a decade or more.
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The skewers are pointed on one end, perfect to match the cone shaped hole made by the pointed screw.

You can sharpen them for the next use (if you want the even the tip of the hole filled) with a normal pencil sharpener.

Sometimes you are repairing holes that are blown out from the post being loose for years.

Other times you have a more delicate surface, like this Fender Stratocaster that I refinished:
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Put a drop of wood glue (Elmers is fine, you don't need anything fancy) either in the hole or on the tip of the Skewer

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Gently tap the glued skewer into the hole.

A small hammer is fine, it does not have to be bashed in, just snug.

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Now take a pair of Flush Cut Diags and cut the Skewer just slightly below the surface

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Here you can see the plugged holes:

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You don't even have to wait for the glue to dry, just run you new screw right into the center of the skewer.

The screw will expand the wood fibers making the hole tougher than the original (of course Bamboo is a stronger wood than Maple too).

If there is a little bit of wood above the playfield, just mash it with a hammer and run your screw in.

If you have larger holes than a skewer, you can repair them with a Fluted Dowel

The fluting that is pressed into the wood, allows the excess glue an exit (you know all that "you can't compress a liquid" physics stuff).

The moisture from the wood glue expands the compressed Dowel, again making a stronger hole than the original.

Dowels come in English and Metric sizes. You **may** have to drill your hole out to the next standard dowel size, so if you hole is a blown-out 1/8", you may have to drill it out to 3/16" so you can tap in a standard 3/16" dowel.

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