I often seem to get stuck with how to solve small details in the workshop. Things like trying to drill a hole into end grain on a dowel with my drill press, sounds easy, but how do you get a nice vertical hole and hold the dowel without spinning?
Fussing around with these kinds of things can use up a lot a valuable time in the shop while accomplishing little, except learning ... which is super valuable.
There is a whole world of "sticky tape" with all sorts of uses but here is yet another that is my new go-to tape, it's inexpensive, has GREAT stretching power (perfect for clamping and holding) doesn't stick all that well to wood (which is good) but sticks great to itself, making it ideal for holding and clamping and easy removal.
Something as simple as "shin pad" or "hockey tape".
It's more than temporary too, wrap something up and you can come back years later, the tape is still good and still stretchy, I used if for clamping where most other clamps won't work, storing wood pieces by taping them together. The list of uses is endless .....
Learn more about Hockey or Shin Pad tape and the Woodworkweb Amazon Store HERE
And speaking of clamping ... here is the effort that I wasted so much time on many years ago, trying to figure out how to hold dowel pieces in my drill press while making larger holes in the end grain for some door pulls I was making. I finally ended up using some modified C-Clamps that barely worked, but most of what I was trying was failing and all my attempts at drilling the dowel end would just spin in the dill press. I later came across these solutions which I later used and share them here ...
And here is another tip I stumbled upon, Using PARCHMENT PAPER in the works, I have a love - hate with parchment paper, I love it because you can use it for anything, NOTHING sticks to it ... which oddly is why I also hate it, nothing sticks to it. I use it all the time for under glue-up especially with CA glues and 2 part epoxy glues, so easy to clean up.
And here is another item I spend way more time on than needed, in my situation a black plastic thumb screw partially broke, I think it was just a poor quality plastic pour, the plastic broke leaving a jagged edge and was a needed adjustment bolt. I tried a number of things to fixe this including CA glue and 2 part epoxy, neither of which would stick to this half-broken knob, which I finally ended up replacing with a bolt, but now I could not finger tighten, so now I needed a wrench of pliers to tighten ... just a frustrating ongoing issue.
Had I known at the time, I could easily make a replacement knob in literally minutes using hot melt glue and a threaded bolt, it could have saved me so much time and wasted effort.
There is probably even some sort of a "release" film I could put in the box end of the wrench to make the hardened glue ease out better, maybe someone out there has some ideas on this.
I have always been very precise on setting up my sliding mitre, I have a good quality saw and blade and want perfect cuts every time. For this reason, I really hate to adjust the angle because sometimes when I re-seat the saw it is off just a tiny bit. For angle cuts I often use my table saw because it makes a good job and I don't have to re-set it, but on occasion, I need to make 91 degree cut or some other angle just barely off the 90 degrees, to make these cuts and NOT have to reset the saw, I simply use something like a popsicle stick or a thin piece of veneer to move the wood slightly off the fence and now I can make those miniscule cuts easily without having to readjust these saw each time ... saves time, frustration and wood.
That's it for today folks, all sorts of things that Colin learned the hard way and I share solutions here, so I figured out on my own others that came from outside sources long since forgotten, but always appreciated.
Colin Knecht
woodworkweb
