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Cheap but indispensable tools

I keep a box of round toothpicks in the shop. Also, a pack of ordinary computer printing paper. I frequently grab for one or the other for different tasks. e.g. last night I fixed a small piece of my wife''s jewelry and used a sheet of the white paper for a background otherwise I wouldn't have been able to see well enough to do it. The toothpicks are most often used as glue spreaders. I have even used them as tiny dowels on small projects.
 
Frank Fusco said:
I keep a box of round toothpicks in the shop. Also, a pack of ordinary computer printing paper. I frequently grab for one or the other for different tasks. e.g. last night I fixed a small piece of my wife''s jewelry and used a sheet of the white paper for a background otherwise I wouldn't have been able to see well enough to do it. The toothpicks are most often used as glue spreaders. I have even used them as tiny dowels on small projects.
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In my shop as well. When I over drill or strip out a screw hole a drop of glue and a toothpick fill in the hole and gives the screw something to bite into.
 
I am a cheapskate so I am hesitant to throw away anything and my cluttered shop reflects that shortcoming.

I save the poly caps off of cans and containers that use them. I wash them after the food is finished and accumulate them in a box in the shop. Then I use them to mix glues on such as epoxy or to add color to a glue. When I am done off to the trash can they go.

I also keep round toothpicks in the shop. I find them useful for applying epoxy to small voids in turnings. I also keep a box or two of oversized flat toothpicks; otherwise known as sandwich picks, for when a small toothpick just won't do. They are longer and stronger and are perfect for a lot of jobs in the shop.

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I also keep a couple of packages of small plastic measuring cups in the shop. They are perfect for mixing larger volumes of glue. I also use them for finish. I can pour a little finish into a cup and work out of it to apply finish to the smaller items I turn. I buy them at Amazon 100 for $2 or so.
I love these little cups.
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And lastly. I keep lots of rubber bands in the shop. I find a myriad of uses for rubber bands. I usually buy a pack of 50 7" long by 1/8" thick rubber bands which are great clamps for small assemblies. I sometimes wrap a rubber band or two around the jaws of my chuck when I am going to insert them into a turning to reverse turn the bottom. The rubber bands serve a two fold purpose in that they keep the chuck jaws from marring the wood and also help to provide a nonslip grip on the wood.
 
Mike Stafford said:
I also keep a couple of packages of small plastic measuring cups in the shop. They are perfect for mixing larger volumes of glue. I also use them for finish. I can pour a little finish into a cup and work out of it to apply finish to the smaller items I turn. I buy them at Amazon 100 for $2 or so.
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I bought a bunch at the local food service a few years ago, super handy. I did find that some finishes will eat right through the cups I have (turpentine did it in record time, but a few others with ?some solvents? made them pretty soft pretty fast).

Electrical tape works really well as a small "stretchy clamp" for re-affixing fiddly little bits while the glue sets.
 
I sure could have used one of Rennie's plastic razor blades a few nights ago. I'm in the process of cleaning up and rehabbing an electric guitar that one of my nephews is giving to one of his nephews (my grand nephew). The fingerboard had a couple of decades worth of punk rock sweat, beer, and grime on it, so I ended up using a straight utility knife blade to scrape it off. A plastic blade would have been kinder to the wood.
Rennie Heuer said:
In my shop as well. When I over drill or strip out a screw hole a drop of glue and a toothpick fill in the hole and gives the screw something to bite into.
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I get a kick out of seeing the arguments guitar repair guys get into about stripped out screw holes in wood. It's pretty common for the screws that hold the pins where you attach a guitar strap to get loose and eventually stripped out. As you've described, a drop of glue and a toothpick or three has always fixed the problem for me. But I've seen a lot of self-described "luthiers" who drill the screw hole out bigger and then plug it with a dowel before drilling a new hole. (Into the end grain. :rolleyes: ) Or other guys go to the trouble to drill it out and make a side grain plug out of matching wood. Either way, they turn it into a big production when all they need is a drop of glue and some toothpicks. :)

And don't even get me started on some of the finishing schedules I've seen these so-called luthiers talk about. :D
 
Not really tool but like others, toothpicks, wooden coffee stirrers, q-tips. All of these can often be had for free or picked up for next to nothing on the clearance table. The wife knows to keep all the pudding and yogurt cups the grandkids eat up. I have two bins in the shop. One for small containers with lids and one for small containers without lids. The non-lids are everything from Pepto-Bismol cups to Yogurt cups. The lidded ones are old Rx containers, food cups with lids and so forth. Over the years I have gathered so many that I do not hesitate to use them.

Cheap tools that get used a lot include a $1 scraper that I threw in with a Grizzly order; wish I would got a few. These fat boy pencils. I have bunches of carpenters pencils but these work better for me. I also use these mechanical pencils in 9mm, and 5mm. I got a couple of 2 size sets for about $10 each many years ago. The 5mm work with Incra steel rules (the ones with the little holes drilled everywhere. I notice a lot of folks on You Tube and the Fine Woodworking videos using them. I'm sure they didn't get the idea from me. They probably just found that the GraphGear ticks a lot of boxes for the woodworker just as I did.

Glue Bot glue dispensers. Very reasonably priced. I picked up a 3 pack at a woodworking show in 2005. I'm still using the first one. I have the smaller size too.

Oh, 2" spring clamps from Home Depot. Very well made for a buck each. I sometimes use them for something in the yard like holding on a tarp. If they get forgotten or destroyed I just pick up a couple the next time I'm at the store.

Lee Valley right-to-left cabinetmakers tape measure. This is the one in my apron pocket, magnetically stuck to the tablesaw fence, and at the bench. Inexpensive and they all match my steel rules and each other.
 
Ryan Mooney said:
I bought a bunch at the local food service a few years ago, super handy. I did find that some finishes will eat right through the cups I have (turpentine did it in record time, but a few others with ?some solvents? made them pretty soft pretty fast).

Electrical tape works really well as a small "stretchy clamp" for re-affixing fiddly little bits while the glue sets.
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That is interesting as I have used lacquer, wipe on poly, Danish oil, Antique oil and various solvents such as mineral spirits, denatured alcohol and turpentine in my cups.
Before I discovered these cups I used waxed bathroom cups. They worked for a while but the solvents eventually ate through the seal at the bottom.
 
My wife learned early on that to throw out a nice small plastic container with a lid was grounds for a divorce! I liked the rectangle shaped containers the Gerber baby food use to come in.. easy to stack clear lid fit tight,, I still have some around.
 
Mike Stafford said:
That is interesting as I have used lacquer, wipe on poly, Danish oil, Antique oil and various solvents such as mineral spirits, denatured alcohol and turpentine in my cups.
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Definitely interesting... They must be a different kind of plastic, I'll try to remember to get a picture of the symbol on the bottom next time I'm out there and see if I can ID it.
 
Yes save all those containers. Then I seemed to be a hoarder. So had to quit. Used some but they eventually over ran my shop so just kept a couple and recycled balance. They are some thing like coat hangers. Oh that's right we don't use the wire kind any more.
David
 
A good point on the different types of plastic. Many solvents will eat through the hard, clear plastics like wedding-party champagne glasses are made from. Others will eat other plastics but if you use those chemicals you probably know what they are. I have a Dixie cup dispenser for epoxy containers for just this reason. Only a couple of my epoxy types eats plastic but I find it easier to just use paper cups for all of my small batch epoxy. I still recall the painful experience of running to the store for some more adhesive for a job I was doing and cooking some plastic wall board; what a mess.
 
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