Hi, everyone, I'm new here; I've been "lurking" in this very valuable
community for a long time but not needed to post before.  Now I would
really appreciate some advice.

I'm working on a suction Orchestrelle I've picked up.  It's clearly
been through several stages or generations of restoration work --
some excellent, some not so good.  People have done quality work to
this beautiful beast that a newbie like me couldn't hope to match.
Others have really bodged some bits up, but at least it's mostly
obvious how to fix it.

However, it has a number of parts where things have been screwed
together differently in the past and there are now more screw holes
than there need to be, and some of these pierce the vacuum parts and
cause leaks.  I am fairly sure I am not missing any important parts,
so the origin of the excess holes is a mystery.

A past owner has simply sticky-taped over them all; let's just say that
wouldn't have been my first choice!  Some of the tape was coming off
anyway and damaging the surface.  I've already decided I can't live
with the tape so am taking it all off and treating the affected wood
with fresh shellac.  However, that leaves me with exposed screw holes
and I can't start testing any of my other work until I stop them all up.

I can think of a few ways to tackle it but not sure which one to use,
or if there is a good answer I haven't thought of.  I would really
appreciate any advice on which is best -- wood filler, burnt shellac,
dowels, veneer, patches of rubber cloth, or the much more laborious
matter of making grain-aligned plugs?  For that matter, is any approach
proven disastrous?

All this is inside, so appearance is not critical (but I'd rather be
neat!).

Thanks very much,

Lester Hawksby