Too_Many_Tools wrote:
I would be interested in hearing what items fellow home shop owners
find in thrift stores and dollar stores that end up being useful in the
home shop environment.

Thanks in advance.

TMT

I recently read where someone had scrounged a cutting board from a
thrift store to use as part of a band saw jig. Not me ... yet.

I get plastic shoe boxes from a local 'dollar' store to store pen kits
with their bushings and also pen blank stock. Good, also, for storing
finished smaller items. They cost a buck each and give me enough dust
free room to store a couple dozen kits or about 30 blanks. There is a
label area on the end just about the right size for a P-Touch label.
Makes it easy to keep kits & bushings together and also to keep the shop
reasonably well organized.

I also get cheap paper towels to use as CA applicators. I simply cut it
in half, (across the length) fold it into a narrow swab, drizzle the CA
on the pen body with the lathe turning at a low speed and lightly spread
with the swab. Then, once the glue has set, I simply tear off the used
end until I get down to about an inch long.

I use duct tape for a mixing surface for epoxy (cheap, stays put, easy
clean up) and also childrens' craft sticks, aka Popsicle sticks, for
mixing it. I use both ends and then use diagonal wire cutters to lop off
the used part and use them a couple more times. Yeah ... that's mighty
cheap of me, but why pay more when this works? Tape and sticks from the
dollar store.

CA is pretty sensitive to moisture, so I dry my pen bodies with a broken
down used blow dryer that is a refugee from the trash pile. It's held
together with rubber bands and not even good enough to donate to the
thrift shop.

Bill


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