Have a decent sized hole in one of the legs of our climbing frame – it’s the bolt hole from the across piece of the end A-frame. I don’t want it to start rotting, so how best to fill this and screw the supporting piece back in?

Dowel it. Just carve a pice of wood into something resembling the right shape/size (a bit thicker) wood glue and bang it in with a hammer. Ideally it’ll go tight as it pops through the frame and therefore be wedged in. Cut off the protruding bits, quick going over with sandpaper and then just drill as required.
However as this is STW someone will come along some to recommend some posh Festool thingymajigger, some exotic hardwood and some locally forged fixing that you must use.

I recommend some posh Festool thingymajigger, some exotic hardwood and some locally forged fixing that you must use.

Drill the hole out with a large diameter drill,and then insert a piece of hardwood roughly the same size and over length, cut to size and shape where it protudes and now drill some 6 mm holes at 45 degree angles above and below the hole,to a depth of an inch, and fill with wood preservative, oil based ones work better than water based emulsion crap. redrill hole for bolt.

posh Festool thingymajigger,

You’ll be wanting to use the new Festool Domino XL, a nice Festool Domino plug and then smooth everything over with a Festool rotary sander….

As above, drill it out so as to be round. Carve / shave a nice hardwood peg on a slight taper, and if you get really into it make the peg octagonal, so that the points of the octagon bite into the support leg. Slosh a load of oil into the hole to prevent any rot, then bang the peg in. Saw the ends flush and the job’s done.

What size is that hole? I have a few hundred oak pegs that might fit if you can’t face making one…

Thanks all, makes sense, I’ll get some wood in there to fill the hole.

Sniggers

Alternatively, head down to your local ag merchants and pick up a new length of round fence rail and just replace it…

…then chop the old one into suitable lengths for your wood burning stove!

I vote for project.

I also plan to fill a hole with wood this evening.