How do you cut bungs ?

[Sven]

Do you cut them before you pound them into place or do you pound them in place, use one of those flexible saws to almost trim them flush and then sand the rest ?


-Sven

 

[Loren Beach]

Just had a discussion about this with a cabinet maker friend of mine yesterday.
Like me, he fully inserts the plug first. I always apply a bit of glue and pound 'em in, altho gently.
He uses a flexible Japanese pull saw to cut them flush, after putting a piece of masking tape on each side of the plug. That way he ends up having to sand down one tape-thickness. He swears by this method.

I have used the sharp-chisel method, but there is occasional risk of not reading the side grain on the plug and cutting from the wrong side...

Cheers,
Loren

 

[treilley]

I replaced nearly every bung on my E35. There are simply some areas that a Japanese saw will not work. I learned how to cut mine with a Fein Multimaster and a flush cut wood blade. It worked great with minimal sanding.

 

[bayhoss]

I've had very good luck with putting the bung in first and then taking a replacement blade from a utility knife, holding it with fingertips from both hands and gently pulling it in the direction of the grain. I've replaced around 30 or so with this method and the results are very good. If you use a chisel, hollow grinding the edge will make a very noticeable difference.

Best,
Frank

 

[Emerald]

cut mine with a Fein Multimaster and a flush cut wood blade. It worked great with minimal sanding.

Hey, no fair - of course it worked great with a Fein Multimaster!

 

[treilley]

Hey, no fair - of course it worked great with a Fein Multimaster!

Emerald, if you had over 600 bungs to cut you would cheat also

 

[Emerald]

Ya know, I've got a bunch of wood work to do on Emerald, one of which might be the toerail, after the bowsprit, before the coaming boxes, and then the butterfly hatch - I think I might have just found enough to do to start saving up for one of these wonderful tools.

Thanks for the mental justification to start a new piggy bank!

 

[Sven]

Thanks for the mental justification to start a new piggy bank!

Tim is a true friend



-Sven

 

[erikwfab]

The only method I have ever used to cut bunts is with a sharp chisel. The trick is to align the wood grains of the board and the bung.
Apply glue, line up the grains and tap it in, come back the next day and simply push a sharp chisel across the bung.
If the grain of the bung wood is slightly diagonal start at the high side.

 

[Bob Robertson]

I have always used a little teak glue to hold the plugs in place and then a small wood plane to trim the plugs flush after the glue has hardened.
You have to be a little careful to avoid scratching the wood around the plug, but I have never had a problem.

Bob

 

[bigd14]

Frank, thanks for the great tip re the utility knife blade! Very timely. I used this method today to put in handrails with great success. I used some varnish to glue them in so I can get them out without too much trouble in a few years to rebed. I was able to trim them flush with the previously varnished surface without damaging it.

Doug

 

[bayhoss]

Happy to help.

Best,
Frank