Masking Tape & Superglue

Work holding is a never ending struggle in my woodworking life. I’m at the point in the loom project where I need to make a small comb to allow the weave to be packed down after each pass of the shuttle. This needs a pretty thin piece of stock to be worked. None of my normal work holding solutions work for something this small and flexible.

Enter the masking tape and superglue trick. I was introduced to this years ago by Ben Crowe of Crimson Guitars on YouTube. Its simple to use. Take a piece of masking tape, and stick it on your bench. Pour a little superglue on top, give it a blast of accelerant if you have it to speed things up. Then put another peice of masking tape on top of that, with the sticky side facing up. Go easy on the superglue, you don’t want any to escape the sides of the masking tape. Then press your work piece on to the masking tape.

Yes, you have effectively created double sided tape. But its not the same. Double sided tape has more grip, which is a bad thing. The masking tape is very strong when it comes to lateral force. For example hand planing! The work is not going to budge. But when you are done, just lift the workpiece up. The masking tape has very little grip in that direction, it will be very easy to remove it, and for that matter, to remove the tape from your bench top when done.

See the photos below for details if any of that is unclear.

Masking tape goes on the bench. It does not matter if its wider or narrower than the part.

Superglue goes on the masking tape. Go easy, you dont want any to squeeze out the sides, or removal will be a lot harder, and it might stick to your work piece.

A second piece of masking tape goes on top, stick side up. Then press your workpiece into it.

And work away. Its incredible just how firmly it holds the work.

When you are done the work will peel off just as easily as the masking tape comes off the bench.