Steve Maxwell’s Top 5 Make-Do Tool Tips

Reader Contribution by Staff
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When it comes to tools, you’ll never have everything. There’s always some implement or another that would make your work so much better, but for most of us the ultimate is often just out of reach. This is why making-do has such a long and admirable tradition. Here are a few of my favorite making-do options.

  1. Hand-Held Belt Sander Doubles as Edge Sander: Many home woodworkers have a hand-held belt sander, but few own a stationary edge sander with horizontal belt travel. This is one of the world’s truly-great, unrecognized shop-performers, but you can make-do by clamping a hand-held belt sander on it’s side to your workbench, with a piece of scrap plywood in front of the belt to act as a surface for the work pieces. The exposed front roller on the sander also makes a great drum sander too.
  2. Masking Tape as a Clamp: There’s no end of clamps you can buy, but while you save your pennies to expand your clamp collection, masking tape can help you make-do. It’s cheap, easy to use and effective, especially for irregular shapes.
  3. Plunge Router as Drill Press: Lack of funds isn’t the only reason you have to make-do. Sometimes it’s due to circumstances. If you’re building something away from your shop, for instance, and have to drill a precise hole that’s exactly square with the work surface (without help from a drill press) what do you do? If you’ve got a plunge router, you’re all set. Just chuck in a straight bit in the machine, clamp the router base to your work surface, then bore-away.
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