Shopsmith Forums

Several years ago I purchased a shop bench at a garage sale that had a waxed top. The top was virtually water & glue proof. If dinged a little wax would restore the bench top. The only drawback was the top was sort of slick & was hard to work a piece without clamping. I like to keep the woodworking bench top unfinished. I feel it gives better grip to the work piece. I gave that bench to a friend for a garage bench.

I Keep a supply of grocery sacks. They are useful for all sorts of things. Some time ago I found this sack holder tube you can stuff sacks in the top and pull them out one at a time from the bottom.
Because freezer or butcher paper has a plastic coating I have used it for many years to protect the bench top from glue,stain or paint. Also the uncoated side can be used to write on.

today tried using the blue tape to cover

squeeze out mess. works very good. also use

wax paper to protect clamps.

In gluing up the laminated rockers for the chair, I'm building, I first laid down wax paper on the bending jig. After doing the 5th lamination, I found wax paper stuck between two of the laminates.

Not wanting a short white line in the middle of the rocker, I glued up another. This time I coated, and rubbed in, a coat of Vaseline. It worked well to keep glue from adhering to the bending jug.

Last year towards the end of the summer I started setting stuff as I glued it, on a Sil-pat mat (12 x 18 silicone baking sheet protection) First tried it as a last resort when gluing up some tricky pen pieces. Nothing seems to stick to it.
To the topic....
I have used painters tape between seams, but my hand and eye do NOT work well to create a straight line (well I guess two straight lines)! so there are still patches. I used to do okay setting tape lines for painting cars but then they were seldom a straight line nor a level surface! I may try packing tape as it is more longitudinally ridged, thus making up for my less then steady hand / eye. I figure if I remove it in a timely manner there won't be much residue (I hope!)

I use packing tape on the pads of the clamps, I guess mainly because I have LOTS and LOTS of it for scroll saw work.

Be well,
Ben

I'm a wax paper guy. I use a lot of it. Also my work bench tops are sacrificial. I use two sheets of particle board on a very flat frame. I clamp the two sheets together and then randomly drill about 10 3/8" holes and glue in some dowel pegs. That way there are no screws to hit with routers etc. I cut holes as needed to insert bar clamps, spill glue, router into it etc and then every so often drill out the dowels and toss out the top sheet and start all over again.