Any woodworkers/joiners - how can I fix this?

hc25036

I'll try to keep a long story short...

A vital part of our kitchen is one of these - http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i436/hc25036/Car%20damage/43M900-TheLambourn2Drawer.jpg. It's made of solid beech wood.

The casters on the legs use this kind of fitting that screws into the base of the leg - http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i436/hc25036/Car%20damage/DSCF0824.jpg.

Unfortunately, due to poor maintenance on my part (the distributor has been brilliant by the way) one of the fittings has worked loose and enlarged the hole so that the caster can become dislodged. I've made a couple of repairs using epoxy, but each repair lasts only a few months before working loose again. The hole has now enlarged by something like a millimetre all round. These trolleys cost a fortune but should last a lifetime, so I need a solid repair. The trolley is delivered assembled and it's not possible to remove and replace the whole leg, so my ideas are:

1. Switch to plate casters all round. My guess is that these will be less strong than the originals (the trolley is very heavy when loaded - it takes two strong men to lift it) and it is constantly moved around on rough kitchen tiles.

2. Drill out a larger hole and pack with hardwood dowelling, then drill a new hole in the dowel for the fitting. How much larger should the dowel be compared to the fitting?

3. That's it!

Any professionals tips would be gratefully received.

googler

Drill or chisel out a circular hole or square tenon, fill that with solid wood, glued in place, then drill new hole for castor fitting within this.

I'd make it as big as I dared with regard to the material remaining around it - hollow out as much as poss without causing the surrounding existing wood to split.

ormus

itll be better to mix some sawdust with the epoxy.
thatll be stronger than pure epoxy.