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filling in a hole with wood filler and a putty knife

Wood Filler vs Spackle: Which One You Should Use And Why

Lumber, Woodworking / By / October 6, 2023

The right materials can make all the difference in any DIY home improvement job. Two debated products are wood filler and spackle. Both are used to fill and repair holes and imperfections, but they serve different purposes and have unique characteristics. Which one you use is a matter of the material you’re working with and the type of repair you’re doing.

using wood putty to fill in holes on a piece of wooden furniture

What is Wood Filler?

Wood filler, often confused with wood putty, is a substance used primarily in woodworking to fill small holes, gouges, and dents in wood. It’s designed to adhere well to wood surfaces and can be sanded down to a smooth finish once dry.

Types of Wood Filler

There are several types of wood fillers, including:

  1. Water-based wood filler: Made from cellulose, it’s easy to clean up and dries quickly.
  2. Oil-based wood filler: Contains solvents and offers longer working time. It’s more durable than its water-based counterpart.
  3. Epoxy wood filler: A two-part system that hardens to fill holes in in wood and is incredibly strong.
  4. Sawdust and wood glue: For those who love a good DIY solution, creating a wood filler at home is possible. By mixing sawdust from the same type of wood as your project with wood glue, you can create a filler that matches the wood’s texture and color closely. This is especially useful for woodworking projects where aesthetics are crucial.

Benefits of Using Wood Filler

  • Versatility in Woodworking: Wood filler is stainable, meaning it can take on the color of the surrounding wood finish. This makes it ideal for repairs that will be visible in the final product.
  • Drying Time: Depending on the type, some wood fillers can dry in as little as 15 minutes.
  • Shrinkage: High-quality wood fillers have minimal shrinkage, ensuring the repair remains flush with the surrounding surface.
  • Adhesion: Designed specifically for wood, these fillers offer excellent adhesion to wood surfaces, from baseboards to wood trim.

filling in drywall holes with spackle and a knife

What is Spackle?

Spackle, or spackling compound, is primarily used to fill nail holes, small cracks, and dents in drywall. It’s made from gypsum and binders, which allow it to dry quickly and adhere well to gypsum-based drywall.

Types of Spackle

  1. Standard spackle: Ideal for small repairs and dries quickly.
  2. Lightweight spackle: Easier to spread and perfect for filling small holes, it’s made from sodium silicate and adhesive
  3. Vinyl spackle: Contains vinyl, increasing durability and reducing shrinkage.
  4. Joint compound: Sometimes confused with spackle, it’s used for larger drywall repairs.

Benefits of Using Spackle

  • Easy Application: With a putty knife, spackle can be easily applied and smoothed out.
  • Quick Drying: Lightweight spackle, for instance, dries in under an hour.
  • Sandable: Once dried, spackle can be sanded to a smooth finish, ensuring a seamless repair.
  • Minimal Shrinkage: Especially with vinyl spackle, there’s minimal shrinkage, ensuring the filled areas don’t sink below the wall surface.

Wood Filler vs Spackle: Key Differences Explained

Intended Use

  • Wood Filler: As the name suggests, wood filler is intended for use on wood. It’s perfect for woodworking projects, repairing wood trim, and addressing imperfections in wooden surfaces.
  • Spackle: For drywall repairs, you should use spackle. Whether you’re filling nail holes or addressing dents, spackle is designed to bond with gypsum, the primary component of drywall.

Composition

  • Wood Filler: This can be made from cellulose, epoxy, polyurethane, or a combination of sawdust and wood glue.
  • Spackle: Primarily made from gypsum, with variations like vinyl spackle or acrylic binders added for specific properties.

Drying Time and Sanding

Both wood filler and spackle offer quick drying times, but the exact time can vary based on the product type and weather conditions. Once dry, both can be sanded to achieve a smooth surface. However, always check the product’s label as some might require priming before painting.

Making the Right Choice for Your Project

Consider the Material

If you’re working with wood – be it filling gouges in a hardwood floor or addressing imperfections in wooden furniture – wood filler is your best bet. For drywall repairs, spackle is the clear choice.

Think About the Size of the Repair

For large holes in drywall, you might want to consider a joint compound or even a patch. For deeper holes in wood, an epoxy wood filler might be more appropriate than standard fillers.

Check Product Reviews

Platforms like Amazon offer user reviews for products like DAP wood filler or various types of spackle. These reviews can provide insights into drying times, ease of use, and the final finish of the product.

Safety First

Always check for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the product. While many modern fillers and spackles have reduced VOCs, it’s essential to ensure good ventilation when working with these products.

Achieve a Smooth Finish

For both wood filler and spackle, the key to a professional-looking finish is sanding. Once your filler or spackle has dried, use sandpaper or a sander to smooth out the surface. Start with a coarser grit and work your way to a finer one for the best results.

Painting and Staining Over Filler and Spackle

Before painting over spackle, it’s often recommended to apply a primer. This ensures even paint absorption and a uniform appearance. For wood fillers, especially if they’re stainable, you can apply a wood stain to match the surrounding area. Always test a small, inconspicuous area first to ensure the desired result.

Storage and Shelf Life

Both wood filler and spackle have a shelf life. Ensure you seal their containers tightly after use to prevent them from drying out. If your filler or spackle has hardened in its container, it’s best to purchase a new one for optimal results.

Conclusion

Whether you’re a seasoned DIY enthusiast or just starting in home improvement, understanding the differences between wood filler and spackle is crucial. By considering the material you’re working with, the size of the repair, and the specific needs of your project, you can make an informed decision and achieve a professional-looking finish. Remember, the key is in the details – and choosing the right filler can make all the difference.

About Peter Jacobs

Peter Jacobs is the Senior Director of Marketing at CNC Masters, a leading supplier of CNC mills, milling machines, and CNC lathes. He is actively involved in manufacturing processes and regularly contributes his insights for various blogs in CNC machining, 3D printing, rapid tooling, injection molding, metal casting, and manufacturing in general. You can connect with him on his LinkedIn.

View all posts by Peter Jacobs

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Slide 1

29. Create a Peck Drilling Program in Circular or Rectangular Patterns
Using the Circular or Rectangular Drilling Wizards, you can program the machine to drill an un-limited series of holes along the X and Y planes. Program it to drill straight through to your total depth, use a high-speed pecking cycle, or deep hole pecking cycle. You can program the cut-in depth and return point for a controlled peck drill application to maximize chip clearance.

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20. Change up to 30 tools with compensation, and store your tool offsets for other programs
The MX supports…

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21. Use the optional ATC rack up to 8 tools for milling, drilling, and rigid tapping applications
The CNC Masters Automatic Tool Changer Rack and Tools (US Patent 9,827,640B2) can be added to any CNC Masters Milling Machine built with the rigid tapping encoder option. The tutorial will guide you through the set-up procedure using the ATC tools.

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22. Use the optional Rigid Tapping Wizard without the need for tapping head attachments
When you order your CNC Masters machine, have it built with the optional rigid tapping encoder. You can take any drill cycle program and replace the top line with a tapping code created by the wizard to tap your series of holes up to 1/2” in diameter.

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23. Use the optional Digital Probe to scan the profile and/or pockets of your fun/hobby type designs to write your tool path program and machine out a duplicate of your original design To “surface” scan an object, you can program the probe along the X or Y plane. The stylus will travel over the part starting on the left side front corner of the object and work its way to the end of the part on the right side. Depending on how the stylus moves, it will record linear and interpolated movements along the X, Y, and Z planes directly on the MX Editor.
To “pocket” scan an object containing a closed pocket such as circles or squares, the scan will start from the top front, work its way inside of the pocket, and scan the entire perimeter of the pocket.
Under the Setup of the MX software you will find the Probe Tab which will allow you to calibrate and program your probe. Your “Probe Step”, “Feed”, and “Data Filter” can also be changed on the fly while the probe is in the middle of scanning your object.

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24. Use work offsets G54-G59 for nesting applications
The work offsets offer you a way to program up to six different machining locations. It’s like having multiple 0.0 locations for different parts. This is very useful especially when using sub-routines/nesting applications.

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25. Create a Rectangular Pocket / Slot with our selection of Wizards to help you build a tool path program
The Cycle Wizards for the mill or lathe makes it easy to create a simple tool path without needing to use a CAD and CAM software.
On this Wizard, the Rectangular Pocket / Slots, can be used to form a deep rectangular pocket into your material or machine a slot duplicating as many passes needed to its total depth.

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26. Create a Circular Pocket Wizard
Input the total diameter, the step down, and total depth and the code will be generated.

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27. Do Thread Milling using a single point cutter Wizard

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28. Cut a gear out using the Cut Gear Wizard with the optional Fourth Axis

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19. Disable the axis motors to manually hand crank each axis into place
Easily de-energize the axis motors by clicking [Disable Motors] to crank each axis by hand, and then press [Reset Control] to re-energize the axis motors.

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30. The MX interface can easily be interchanged from Mill Mode to Lathe Mode
Use this interface for your CNC Masters Lathe. It contains all the same user-friendly features and functions that comes in Mill Mode. Simply go to the Setup page and change the interface.

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31. Use Tool Change Compensation or the optional Auto Tool Changer Turret if your application requires more than one tool in a single program
You can offset the length and angle of each tool and record it under Tools in your Setup. The program will automatically pause the lathe’s movement and spindle allowing you to change out your tool, or allowing the optional ATC Turret to quickly turn to its next tool and continue machining.
On the MX interface, you also have four Tool Position buttons. Select your desired T position, and the auto tool post will quickly turn and lock itself to that position.

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32. Use the Lathe Wizard Threading Cycle to help you program your lathe’s internal or external threads in inches or metric

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33. Use the Lathe Wizard Turning / Boring Cycle to help you program simple turning and boring cycles without having to go through a CAM or writing a long program with multiple passes

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34. Use the Lathe Wizard Peck Drilling Cycle to help you program your drill applications or for face grooving

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35. Facing / Grooving / Part Off Cycle Wizards – with Constant Surface Speed
These cycles can be used with Constant Surface Speed allowing the spindle speed to increase automatically as the diameter of the part decreases giving your application a consistent workpiece finish. With CSS built into the wizard, there is no need to break down the cycle into multiple paths and multiple spindle speed changes.

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36. This is our list of supported G and M codes which can be found under Tools > G Code/ M Code List in the MX
If you plan to use a third-party CAM software to generate your tool path program, use a generic FANUC post processor and edit it to match our list of codes. As an option, we also sell Visual mill/turn CAM software which comes with a guaranteed post processor for our machines to easily generate your tool path programs based on your CAD drawings.

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37. Our pledge to you…

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10. Run each tool path independently to study its movement
1. Run the machine on Trace mode. You can run each tool path independently, one line at a time to study the tool path movement on the machine to verify the position of the application and if any fixture/vise is in the way of the cutter’s path.

2. You can also verify your program by clicking on the Trace and Draw buttons together. This will allow you to view each tool path independently one line at a time in the Draw Window.

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2. Clutter Free Interface
The MX is engineered for the CNC MASTERS machine so you do not have to fiddle with a detailed complicated configuration that can be overwhelming. Just load in the MX and start machining!2. Clutter Free Interface
The MX is engineered for the CNC MASTERS machine so you do not have to fiddle with a detailed complicated configuration that can be overwhelming. Just load in the MX and start machining!

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3. Features Tour and Tutorials Included
The Features Tour will give you a quick run-down on all the features the MX can do for you. The Tutorials are easy to follow even for the first time CNC machinist.
Feel free to download the MX on any of your computers. We recommend downloading the MX along with your CAD and CAM software there at the comfort of your office computer to generate your tool path programs. You don’t need to be hooked up to the machine either to test your program in simulation mode.

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4. Navigate and Edit Your Program through the MX interface with Ease
With a few clicks of the mouse or using touch screen technology, you can easily navigate through the MX interface importing saved programs into the Editor from the File drop down menu. Using standard windows features to edit your program you can then lock the Editor Screen to avoid accidental editing, and if you need to insert a line in the middle of a program, just click on [ReNum] to re-number your tool path list.
You can create a program or import CAM generated G-code tool paths into the Editor
The X Y and Z W arrow jog buttons are displayed from the point of view of the cutter to avoid confusion when the table and saddle are moving. You can also adjust your spindle speed and coolant control while jogging each axis.

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5. Feed Hold – Pause in the Middle of your Program
Feed Hold lets you pause in the middle of a program. From there you can step through your program one line at time while opting to shut the spindle off and then resume your program.
You can also write PAUSE in the middle of your program and jog each axis independently while your program is in pause mode.

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6. Hot Keys
Hot Keys is an alternative method to easily control your machine using your hard or touch screen keyboard. One can press P to pause a program, press S to turn Spindle On, G to run a program, Space Bar to Stop, J to record your individual movements one line at a time to create a program in teach mode.

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7. Pick Menu – for conversational mode programming
Write FANUC style G-codes directly into the Editor or select commands off the [Pick] menu and write your tool path program in conversational mode such as what is written in the Editor box. You can even mix between conversation commands and G-codes in the same program.

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8. Pick Menu List of Options
Use commands such as MOVE, SPINDLE ON/OFF, COOLANT ON/OFF, PAUSE, DELAY, GO HOME…. to write your tool path programs in conversational mode.

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9. Draw the Tool Path to verify it before pressing Go
Hit Draw to view your tool path program drawing, check out its run time, or even simulate the tool path in 3D mode. This can be helpful to quickly verify your program before running it. You can also slow down or speed up the drawing or simulation process.
You can also hit Go within the Draw Window itself to verify the cutter’s position on the machine. The current tool path will be highlighted and simultaneously draw out the next path so you can verify what the cutter will be doing next on the program.

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MX Software – Easy to Use, Easy to Learn – Included with your machine purchase
The MX software is designed to work seamlessly with your CNC Masters machine. It is made to work with Windows PC – desktop, laptop, or an all in one – on standard USB. Use it on Windows 8 or 10 64-bit operating systems.
No internal conversion printer/serial port to USB software or additional conversion hardware is used with the MX.

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11. Counters display in Inches or Millimeters – Continuous Feed
1. When running a program, the counters will display a “real-time” readout while the machine is in CNC operation without counting ahead of the movement.
2. The current tool path is highlighted while the machine is in operation without causing slight interruptions/pauses as the software feeds the tool path to the machine. The MX internally interprets a program ten lines ahead to allow for “continuous machining” avoiding slight interruptions as the machine waits for its next tool path command.
3. “Run Time” tells you how long it takes to run your tool path program.

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12. Use the “Go From Line” command to start in the middle of your program
If you ever need to begin your program from somewhere in the middle of it, use [Go From Line] which you can find under Tools. The Help guide will walk you through how to position the cutter without losing its position on the machine.

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13. Exact Motion Distance without over-stepping on an axis while jogging
Use “Relative ON” to enter a specific coordinate to jog any of your axes to an exact location without having to write a program. It’s like using “power feed” but easier. You can jog an exact distance on any of the axes without needing to keep the key pressed down and mistakenly over-step the movement releasing your finger too slowly off the jog button.
Let’s say you need to drill a hole exactly 0.525” using the Z. So you enter 0.525 in the Z box. Next, adjust the JOG FEED RATE slider for the desired feed rate. Then “click once” on the +Z or -Z button to activate the travel. In this case you click once the -Z button first to drill the hole exactly 0.525”. Then click once on the +Z button to drive the axis back up 0.525”.

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14. Teach Mode – Jog Input
You can create a tool path program by storing each point-to-point movement by simply jogging an axis one at a time. Click on either of the Jog Input buttons to store each movement on the Editor Screen. You can then add Spindle ON, feed commands, and press GO to run the new program as needed. This is a great feature to help you learn to create a program by the movements you make on the machine without necessarily writing out an entire program first.

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15. Override on the fly to adjust the Jog Feed to Rapid or the Spindle Speed during the middle of a program
1. Jog Feed and Rapid with Override: You can adjust feeds using the slider from slow minimum 0.1″ per minute to a rapid of 100″ per minute of travel. You can even micro-step your jog as low as 0.01”/min. The [-][+] buttons allow you to fine tune feeds in 5% increments while the program is in motion.
2. Spindle Speed with Override: You can adjust speeds using the slider from a slow minimum RPM to the max RPM according to the machine setup. The [-][+] buttons allow you to fine tune feeds in 5% increments while the program is in motion.

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16. Adjust Counters using Pre-Set if you cannot begin the program from 0.00
In a situation where you cannot begin your cutter at it’s 0.00 location, you can “Pre-Set” directly into the counters by typing in your beginning coordinate. You can press Go from here to run your program. You can also “zero all” or “zero” your counters independently. With one click of the [Return to 0.0] button, all axes will travel back to its respective 0.0 on the machine.

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17. Set and Save your 0.00 position for future runs
Set and save your 0.00 position on the machine. These coordinates will be recorded as the first line of the program in the Editor Screen. Should you desire to return to this program at a later date, you only have to click on the Set Zero Return button. This will command the machine to automatically jog each axis to its saved “set” 0.00 position according to the recorded coordinates at the first line of the program.

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18. Create a “Home” position to clear your application and run multiple times
Let’s say you need to machine one application times 100 pieces. This usually requires a jig to retain that physical 0.00 position. But in this case, you want the program to end with a clearance of the axes to easily switch out the next piece of stock and start again. With Save Home, you have the ability to save this offset (home) position while still retaining your Set Zero position where the machine will mill your part out. Pressing [Save Home] will record this new position under the Set Zero line in your program.
Pressing [Go Home] will jog your axes back to your “saved home” position where you originally pressed the Save Home command. You can also input GO_HOME from the Pick Menu as its own tool path in your program. At the completion of your program the axes will end at your Home position. Replace your part, then press [Return to 0.0] button to allow the axes to return to its zero position, and press Go to start your next run.

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