A Sticky Situation

I mentioned in a previous entry (“The End of L-Brackets“) that I’m working autonomously on an upcoming I Can Do That project, a canted wall box. And it was going so well…¦I selected some straight, flat Ã?½” poplar from our local home center. Two 6″ x 4′-long pieces , just enough for the project, so as not to waste any money.

After a little head scratching and a few trial runs, I figured out how to draw the three arcs I needed for the top profile (my high school geometry teacher would be so proud…¦and so shocked). I cut the back to length, marked out the shapes, then carefully cut just outside the lines , the less cleanup I have to do with a rasp and sandpaper, the better. (Sadly, there’s no spindle sander in the I Can Do That toolbox.)

Then, I moved on to my second piece of stock for the canted sides. I cut them to length with a miter saw, then marked out the shape I wanted on one piece (again, by trial and error). I very carefully cut it out, then used the first piece as the pattern for the second side, and cut it out, too.

I cut my shelves and bottom from the offcut.

Now what I should have done at this point is carefully line up the straightedges on the back and bottom of the two sides, and snug them up in a vise for final shaping. After all, there’s a very nice twin screw on the end of my bench; it certainly has enough holding power to keep the pieces properly aligned as I rasp, file and sand the edges to the finished shape. (I’m supposed to use the Workmate for the ICDT projects, but at the moment it’s buried behind a pile of boxes…¦heavy boxes. But for the record, the Workmate, too, has plenty of holding power to keep the pieces aligned.)

But, one of the tricks we’ve taught in past ICDT projects is to use carpet tape to keep like pieces aligned for final shaping. It’s a great way to ensure nothing slips before or as you’re clamping up the work , but it’s not strictly necessary. Nonetheless, I decided to tape the pieces.

I sauntered over to what we call the “glue cabinet.” That’s where we keep all our adhesive and adhesive-related products , glue, epoxy, painter’s tape, Goo Gone, carpet tape and Speed Tape. You probably know where this is going, don’t you?

So I grabbed what I thought was carpet tape, snipped off three lengths, and applied them to the inside surface of one of my sides. I peeled off the paper, and oh-so-carefully aligned the second side before pressing them together. Perfect! I nonchalantly chucked …?em in the twin screw, and went to town with the rasp and sandpaper.

Fabulous , two sides that match up perfectly. Am I good or what?! And I didn’t need a bit of help!

Then, I went to take the sides apart so I could do my final assembly. They wouldn’t budge. Geez. How hard can it be to get two taped pieces of wood apart?! I tried everything I could think of  , cursing, a wedge, a deadblow mallet and more cursing. All to no avail. Finally, I had to suck it up and admit defeat. Chris found this highly amusing, but kindly agreed to lend a hand (so much for autonomy).

First, he tried to pull the pieces apart with his hands. Nope (and thank goodness , I’d have never lived it down had he succeeded). Then a lever. No dice. Then a deadblow mallet. Not happening.

Then he asked to see the tape.

Now, I was heretofore unfamiliar with the wonder that is Speed Tape. It looks a heck of a lot like carpet tape…¦a 1″ roll with adhesive on both sides, protected on one side by white waxy paper that gets peeled off to reveal the second strip of adhesive. It’s not carpet tape. It’s a really sticky, high adhesion peel-and-stick adhesive strip used to permanently attach veneers and laminates to substrates. Let me tell you, the stuff works.

Anyway, to make a long story end, we tried to resaw the pieces on the band saw. Call it blade drift, user error, or whatever, that failed. So, I’m headed back to the home center for another piece of poplar. And the next time I get all snarky about something (which rarely happens, of course), I know what story is coming…”Say, do you guys remember  that “tape” incident?”

– Megan Fitzpatrick