Reader R. B. Himes sent several cool tips for keeping pencils handy. Insert pencils into holes drilled in the edges of shelves, or put small screw eyes into the erasers and hang ’em from nails.
 Reader's Digest Pencils at the Ready |
Other pencil hangouts? Wrap a strip of self-stick Velcro around a pencil and put a corresponding strip wherever you need a pencil. To make a pencil stay put on metal surfaces, attach a piece of magnetic tape ($2 a roll at fabric stores) to it.
Need another? Buy plastic coaxial cable holders ($2 for a 20-pack), reverse the brad direction and tack ’em on the side of a worktable or tool rack. You can quick-draw the pencils out of the plastic jaws.
Jointer hold-downs
Use a couple of rubber sponge floats to hold down boards on your jointer. Typically used in stucco work, sponge floats are available at home centers for about $6. They grip boards tightly, keep your hands far from the cutter head, and put a stop to vibration! Thanks to reader Clarke Green for this very useful tip.
WARNING: GUARD MUST BE REMOVED FOR THIS OPERATION—USE CAUTION!
Build this box from plywood or medium-density fiberboard and use it to cut tenons, lap joints, rabbets and other joints on the ends of boards. It makes accurate cuts and keeps your hands well away from the blade.
Make the box wide enough so the clamp handle will fit inside, and screw a board on the side at 90 degrees to support the piece you’re cutting.
To use the box, slide it against the table saw fence. To ensure accurate cuts, build the box with parallel sides that are 90 degrees to the saw table.
Better grindstones
To sharpen delicate tools, put pink or white aluminum oxide grinding wheels ($20 at woodworking specialty stores) on your bench grinder. Standard gray wheels glaze over and burn your tools, but granules on aluminum oxide wheels wear off during grinding—exposing a fresh grinding surface so the tool doesn’t heat up and burn as easily.
Far-reaching stop block
Staple a 1/8-in. threaded rod to a fence board attached to your table saw’s miter gauge. Use electrical staples (the kind you pound in with a hammer). Slide a stop block on the rod between pairs of washers and Wing-Nuts, and use it to cut a number of boards to the same length. The stop block stays put board after board.
Putty syringe
An oral syringe ($2 at pharmacies) works great for precisely injecting putty into nail holes or other dents and cracks, according to reader Jim Tennessen. You won’t have to sand away putty smeared around the hole.
Oral syringes are also perfect for injecting wood glue into narrow crevices for furniture repairs. Hot water cleans the syringe in a flash.
No-slide workbench
Cut strips of router or carpet pad and stick them on the bottom of workbench legs with double-faced tape. Now your workbench won’t slide around when you’re bearing down on project parts.
