Elevating Work for Finishing

[buildintechie]

What do you all use to elevate your work off the bench when you're finishing it? Or do you just finish one side?

Just curious.

Thanks

 

[CDPeters]

I use the plastic painter's pyramids - got about 30 of them - and I think they work quite well. Usually there is only a small blemish left which is easily touched out with some 320 paper or 0000 steel wool.

C.

 

[Jim M.]

+1 for plastic painter's pyramids. Jim

 

[pviser]

I have a few plastic painters' pyramids also, but I also have a 5 gallon bucket full of oak flooring shorts (roughly 3" X 3") with 2" sheet rock screws driven through and countersunk. When upside down on my work table with the screw points upward, they function just like the pyramids.

 

[Mike Camp]

+1 on the painter's pyramid's but before I owned those I did the sheet rock screw through a scrap piece of wood as paul suggested and that worked as well. Depending on the weight of the project I'd occasionally grind the tip of the screw down a little with my dremel.

 

[Tim Sherwood]

I have a few painters pyamids, but I find they tend to move around too easily. When you turn the work over, they aren't where you thought they would be! I like a three inch square of scrap plywood with a half dozen brads shot through it. They are a bit heavier and tend to stay put on the table. I use a 1" x 18 gauge nail. You can also glue on a piece of non-skid shelf liner for even more stability.

 

[merrill77]

I pound a few nails through some scraps, flip them over and sit my work on that. If I'm worried about a small indent, then I might round over the tips with a file. Note that since I usually finish with shellac, any marks they might leave tend to disappear with application of subsequent coats. On the final coats, I don't put a wet side on the nails.

 

[buildintechie]

Has anybody used those bench cookies and subsequent cookie cones from Rockler?

 

[Mike Camp]

Has anybody used those bench cookies and subsequent cookie cones from Rockler?

I've got a set of the cookies (not the cones) Jeff, and they work well holding a piece still while sanding with an ROS or using a router. For them to work well you just have to make sure to keep the surfaces of the cookie mostly clear of dust or they don't "grip" as well. I don't use them for finishing very often because with the pyramids I can work on the second side while the first side is drying.