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10
Fastening

In the Introduction, I tell how listening to the stories people told as they shared their tips inspired this book. There were two specific tips, though, that also inspired me to write this book. The first was a trick I saw for removing a broken lightbulb from a socket—a sticky (and potentially bloody) situation, right? You simply cut a potato in half, jam the slice o’ spud onto the broken bulb fragment in the socket, and then twist it out. I got the biggest charge from seeing that. It’s so smart, so simple, and the kind of clever hack that’s as much of a brain-treat flavored with human ingenuity as it is a worthy solution to a problem. A few days later, I had a similar inspired moment when I saw the first tip in this chapter about using a rubber band to help remove a stripped screw head. Seeing these two tips within a short span of time had a weird effect on me. It may sound corny, but tips like this that are such a simple and seemingly perfect solution to a problem have a lingering impact on me. I start seeing my world in a slightly different way; I start working in a slightly different way. This gave me the idea of putting together a collection of such insightful tips in the hope that, in looking through them, not only would the readers find dozens of ideas to improve their making activities, but it might also have the effect of inspiring people to see and think in a slightly different way. So, without further ado, here’s one of the tips that started it all, along with a dozen or so additional eye-opening ideas related to the fine art of fastening things together.

Using a Rubber Band on a Stripped Screw

Got a screw with a stripped head? Place a wide rubber band over the head and unscrew as normal.

Top 5 Uses for Poster Putty

Most of you are likely familiar with poster putty (Blu Tack, Fun-Tak, Duck Putty—it goes by dozens of different brand names). It is a non-drying, low-tack mounting putty that was originally designed to hold posters onto walls. But there is so much else you can do with it. Because it’s cheap, reusable, low-tack, leaves little-to-no residue, and much more, it is perfect for all sorts of diverse applications. Certain hobby communities, such as scale-modelers and tabletop gamers, long ago made poster putty a staple of their toolboxes. Here are 5 of the best, unexpected uses for poster putty:

1. In place of helping hands

One of the great uses for poster putty is to hold small objects while you work on them. You can stick parts that you are gluing together, painting, or similar, into a blob of it. You can use it as an impromptu tool, parts holder, or pin cushion. You can also use it in place of conventional helping hands when you’re assembling electronics. You can press PCBs right down on it and it won’t usually leave any visible residue. You’ll obviously want to clean your board afterward, but you would do that anyway. Once you start to incorporate the use of this material into your electronics bench workflow, you’ll likely find yourself grabbing it instead of helping hands in many situations.

2. As a mask

Poster putty is widely used in modeling applications as a mask. You can use it as quick and dirty masking material for airbrushing and other painting (say, to cover an airplane cockpit canopy before painting) and in creating pretty effective, organic-looking camouflage patterns on models. You can also use it to cover areas that will be accepting glue later on so that you’re not gluing painted parts together. Tabletop Minions has a brief introduction video on YouTube on using poster putty in model-making.

3. As a prototyping or test-fitting tool

Poster putty can be extremely useful when you want to test-fit or test-assemble almost anything, from plastic models to wooden furniture. You can do all of the joining with poster putty, make sure everything is how you want it, and then permanently glue it. Modelers use poster putty all the time for this purpose.

4. As a screw holder

If you are in a situation where you can’t hold a screw with one hand and a driver with the other, just put a little blob of poster putty on the head of the screw and let it hold the screw on the tip of the driver while you drive it home.

5. As a vibration stabilizer

Even if you don’t use poster putty to hang a picture, you can still use it to hold the bottom corners of the frame in place so that vibration doesn’t make it crooked. This type of adhesive is also known as museum putty because it can also be used to secure objects on a shelf so that vibration doesn’t knock them off. I image that poster putter is especially popular for this application in earthquake zones.

Hold a Screw in Place with Paper, a Comb, or a Pencil Eraser

If you’re trying to get a small screw or bolt into place, but can’t quite grip it, just poke it through a scrap of paper and use the paper to hold it while you start to screw. Once the threads have taken, rip the paper away. You can also use a comb and place a small nail or brad between two teeth. And for holding small brads that can be too small to hold confidently in your hand, you can use a pencil eraser. Just poke the brad through the eraser, hold the pencil to position the brad, and then begin hammering. With the brad embedded in the workpiece, you can tear away the eraser and finish sinking your nail.

Twist Off that Zip Tie Tail

When trimming down the excess tail on a zip tie, don’t cut it. This will leave a sharp-edged tail that can scratch you. Use pliers or a multitool to twist the excess off, flush with where the lock is. This will sheer off the excess fairly cleanly and leave no scratchy tail. [SH]

Lube a Screw with Bar Soap

This is a boatbuilder’s trick. If you lubricate a screw with soap, it goes in a lot easier and holds just as well. [TA]

Use Your Pencil as Lubricant

If you’re in the field and need a lubricant, say to re-pin the hinge on a door, don’t forget that graphite (pencil lead) makes an excellent lubricant in a pinch.

A Pivotal Point in History

Recently, I’ve been learning how to repair antique clocks under the guidance of clock expert Bob Frishman. When assembling a clock, there are many axles with pivots on the end that must be fitted within the holes in the clock’s plates. It is one of those jobs that seems to require 10 hands. A pivot locator is a long, thin tool used to gently nudge the pivots into place. You can buy them, but I’ve come to love the one shown here. It’s handmade, but not by me.

I live in Lowell, Massachusetts, which was once a major producer of textiles. Mill workers would fashion tools for themselves to help them do their particular jobs. I found one such tool at a local antique shop and bought it. I stopped by the Boott Cotton Mills Museum at the Lowell National Historical Park to ask exhibit specialist Rick Randall about the tool. He told me that the tool is called a reed hook or weaver’s hook. It was used to catch the end of a piece of yarn so that it could be threaded through the appropriate parts of a machine. Along with a pair of scissors, every loom operator had one tucked into her apron, as seen in this image of a Massachusetts mill girl from 1916.

The weaver’s hook had a simple U-shaped bend at the end when I got it. The handle is made up of a stack of thick leather washers, which were shaped, then tacked together at the base. A tarnished brass ferrule caps the front end of the handle. Copying the design of a commercially available pivot locator, I bent a second curve in the end of the tool, forming an S shape. This shape allows me to push or pull a pivot, as needed, when the pivot is out of reach. It has the advantage of being longer than many of the store-bought versions. The square-sided handle prevents the tool from rolling off the workbench and helps me keep it oriented properly when in use. The tapered metal shaft provides feedback that reminds me not to use excessive force, which can cause the delicate pivots to bend.

I like the idea of using an antique tool to repair an antique clock. Every time I reach for it, I wonder about the mill worker who once used it. What was her name? What was life like for her? I’ll never know all of the answers, but it’s reasonable to assume she spent many 10- to 14-hour days working with this tool. Surely, it would have felt like an extension of her own hand. For me, the tool is a tangible connection to the history of the city and the people who once lived and worked in it.

—Dug North

Taping Slotted Drivers for Delicate Screws

If you’ve ever worked with brass screws, especially antique ones, you know that their heads can be soft and have a tendency to strip. You can help minimize the chance of this happening, and keep your screws unmarred, by wrapping a slotted driver with masking tape before working the screws. [JEP]

Turning Wood Screws Counterclockwise to Start Them

Make: contributor and toy designer Bob Knetzger, writes: “In order to avoid cross threading or stripping out wood screws that you’re going to remove and then screw back in, don’t just start turning the screw. Place it into the existing hole, but first turn it backward (counterclockwise), very sensitively, with just a tiny bit of inward pressure. At some point, you’ll feel the screw fall into the previous thread in the wood. Stop! Now turn the screw clockwise to tighten. This will prevent you from stripping out the wood!” [BK]

Cheating a Wrench

On the Classic Work YouTube channel, Ethan shows off some “mechanicin’” tips, including this leveraging classic known as “cheating a wrench.” Basically, you interlock one C-wrench with another to gain a much greater mechanical advantage. As he points out, you have to be careful to keep everything square or the wrenches could slip and you could break your wrist. If it’s carefully done, though, you’ll be amazed at how much pressure you can bring to bear.

Reducing Nail Gun Pressure on the Fly

Andy Birkey shares this fantastic nail gun tip that he says is commonly used in production shops. Sometimes, such as when you’re driving nails into very thin stock, the gun’s strong air pressure can drive the nail clean through the board. The normal thing to do would be to reset the PSI on your air compressor. But instead of having to walk to the compressor to adjust the pressure, you can simply angle the head of the gun to the side a little in order to dissipate some of the momentum with which the nail is driven into the workpiece. [AB]

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