I am constantly looking for easier ways to perform work holding.
Lately I have been CNC routing wood lettering stencils on thin materials (.125).
I started with double back tape (like carpet tape) which works fine but is awful to clean off the wood.
Rather than tape, I moved to better mechanical hold downs. Then this weekend while cleaning shop I found the pressure sensitive tape I used to use for hand routing using templates.
This stuff has great strength and is EASY to remove. I can even reuse it a couple of times.
With this tape in mind I am going back to taping thin wood materials :).
@donkjr Does that Spectatape work on blocks of wood too? I have a block for a pinewood derby car that and I need to be able to mill the edges of the block as well. I use those Rockler hold downs but those will only work where you have some excess material to hold down outside of the cutting area and those pinewood derby car blocks are an exact size, i.e., no side waste material.
If the Spectatape won’t work for that application, do you have any suggestions? I was thinking of getting a larger piece of wood I could clamp to and drilling through into the car block to hold it down. I would like to avoid that option if there is a better way.
@Michael_Forte this tape is actually made for wood holding so I think it would work.
Another method I have not yet tried is:
…Stick down a piece of masking tape on the spoil board where you want to work hold
…Put a piece of tape on the object to hold in a matching location.
…Put super glue on the back (side facing up) of the masking tape that is on the spoil-board.
…Lay the blank down on the spoil-board mating the matching strips of masking tape, with the super glue between.
Essentially you are gluing the back of the masking tape together with the super glue.
To effect a faster drying joint, spray CA accelerator on the blank side. Be aware there will be no working time with the accelerator it will dry on contact.