All Around Patching Material for the Shop

My love of reading and the knowledge and learning contained in books led me to adopt the moniker DonLibro when I first joined the Professional Refinishers Group lightly moderated forum (or “Groop”) many, many moons ago.  This served a utilitarian function as well, as there were a couple of other Dons in the Groop, so it helped the other Groopsters know who to get mad at for any particular comment.  As my eyesight fades and reading becomes comparatively less effortless, and especially when working in the shop, I have become an audio learner and am invariably listening to something on my vintage mp3 players.  Given the fairly dynamic posture of working physically I find myself going through at last a couple sets of earbuds a year, and even though I buy them at the Dollar General it irritates me when I get caught on something and damage them.  Such an occurrence recently led me to discover a new use of a standard shop product.

I was drilling some holes for holdfasts on a new workbench I was building for a friend, concentrating on keeping the auger bit and its drilling jig working in concert.  Bending over the setup, the wire for the earpiece got tangled with the bit and was yanked out of my ear and the rubber casing thrashed.  I stopped and extracted the earbud set and took them to the bench to give a look to see the damage.  The whole unit was a knotted mess, and you could see the bare copper of the wires feeding the micro speakers that comprise such a unit.  But surprisingly they still worked just fine.  I thought about wrapping the damaged area with electricians tape but the proportions made this a ridiculous proposition.  I went over to my adhesives and caulk shelf to see if there was anything there that might help.  Sure enough, just on the next higher shelf was the answer; rubber grip coating for tool handles from the hardware store.

Gently unwinding the knotted cable to the ear bud I then swabbed those few inches with some of the rubber liquid, and ten minutes later the earpiece went back to work and into my ear.

Another pet peeve of mine is gloves that wear out before their time, whether they are $4 thermal “disposable” gloves from Atlas I buy by the dozen or $30 “high end” work gloves from the hardware store.  I find the same liquid rubber restores and extends the life of these gloves, sometimes for another hundred hours of work, sometimes more or less.

I remain on the lookout for places I can use this material in the shop, and will report back when I find them.