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My cabinet hinges are the sorely inadequate euro hinges that used a piece of plastic to hold the door shut. These plastic pieces have broken on nearly every cabinet which requires the entire hinge to be replaced. I cannot find any hinges that fit the original screw holes (not surprising), however I have an issue because the original hinges were screwed into plastic dowels. The edge of the outside of these dowels lines up with the screw holes of every euro hinge I have tried that fits my cabinet. How can I fill or fix the dowel space so that I can screw my new hinges into the cabinet doors?

Photos of the cabinet door without the hinge, and with the new hinge placed in the door so that you can see where the holes intersect the door and existing dowel.

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    Along with the picture it would be very helpful to know the type of material that the hinge is mounted to. There is probably a good reason that the "plastic dowels" were used as the screw insert points for the hinges. I suspect that the material may be a particle board (which is terrible at holding screws) and the plastic inserts are a way of giving the screw mount a lot more hold into the material. If this is the case then possible repair suggestions would be different than if the material is a regular solid wood.
    – Michael Karas ♦
    Jul 1, 2015 at 13:15

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To try to plug that for the sake of getting better grip for the screws, will not be worth it.

Others may not agree but I would not hesitate to use a self-centering bit like a Vix bit and drill the new pilot hole where the hinge dictates- right at the area where the plastic and wood meet. The wood will be hard enough to hold the screw, and what little grabs the plastic insert will add a little more hold, and compress the plastic in tighter.

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    If @Jack's answer doesn't work, drive a screw part-way into the plastic plugs and pull them out. Use wood dowels the size of the holes (or slightly larger and whittled down to fit tightly), cut them so they sit flush and wood glue them in to fill the holes.
    – Jimmy Fix-it
    Jul 2, 2015 at 18:50

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