Repairing wood screw holes

[doubleset]

I've fooled with wood fillers, putties, Gorilla Glue, epoxy, etc. in the past but have come to prefer a proper wood plug/dowel/pick and wood glue over the other stuff.

I agree. Just don't have confidence in any of the fillers holding well -- though that's mostly just a feeling. For extra strength of the epoxies and such, you can mix in some aluminum or iron filings, which I have on occasion. But I still don't know if that really adds to the holding strength for wood screws. Mostly I just don't like wood screws and don't trust them to hold over time, though that does depend on the particular wood. I guess my attitude is "Wood screws -- at least they're better than nails."