Fixing Stripped Out Wood Screws for Cabinets Latches

I have a newer model pickup camper and after about the first year of use, I noticed that the cabinet door latches would not stay in place. The screws that held them in place had stripped out over time and latch no longer worked.

The following steps show how I used wooden dowels to fix the problem.

I looked at a couple of options for wooden dowels, and I ended up buying a full doweling kit from Harbor Fright for just a few bucks. This kit came with dowels, drill bit, etc. Made the whole job super easy.

The dowels that came in the kit were about twice as long as I needed for the screws needed to mount the latches. I used a small hand saw and cut them to the appropriate length.

To make drilling holes in my cabinets easy and straight, I created the above simple drill guide. I only had a dozen or so holes to drill, so I didn't add steel guides and just used a nice thick piece of hardwood.

Remove the existing latch, leaving a nice pattern from the existing screw holes.

With the drill guide, drill the first hole aligned to the existing screw hole. Then using a piece of dowel, align the fixture to the newly drilled hole. With the drill guide located to the first hole, use the guide to drill the second hole.

After drilling out holes for the dowels, apply wood glue to the dowel and press it into the hole. You'll want to make sure the dowel is flush to the surface, or even a little below the surface of the cabinet. This will allow the latch to sit firmly against the cabinet face.

After allowing the glue to dry overnight, simply reattach the latches using the original screws. With the dowel glued in place, you now have fresh new wood to secure your latch hardware with!