We have had lots of struggles and challenges in our lives, but we've had even more blessings!

Monday, March 1, 2010

easy glue clean-up tip

       The other day we were watching an episode of PBS's show, 'Ask This Old House'. For records sake, it was the episode where they helped the homeowners grind down a stump from their old tree and then plant a large sized new tree. During each episode they also feature a tip sent into them by a viewer. All of us marveled at how much easier projects could be made by using that particular submitted tip, and I immediately said that I was going to use it as one of my 'hopefully helpful' Monday tips. Today is that Monday!
      The tip had been submitted to 'Ask This Old House' by a viewer named Steven. Sorry, I do not remember his last name, nor where he was from. But I definitely remember his tip!

      You know how when your using wood glue to help attach one piece to another in building something, after you apply the glue, and put the pieces together, sometimes a small amount of glue seeps out? Usually you then have a choice. You either leave the ridge of glue. Or, you scrape it off, and sand the area, and ... . This tip will help eliminate all of those additional steps.

       Let's see. I know many of you are visual people. How can I write a better word picture so that you can better visualize what I'm talking about? Hum mmm
      Let's say you have a wood dresser that one of the drawers has come apart on. Instead of using a whole bunch of small screws to try and hold the drawer together again, you decide to use wood glue. After sanding down the edge of both the bottom piece of the drawer and the bottom of the back piece of the drawer, you apply a long line of wood glue to one of the pieces and then stick the two together, applying pressure to make sure the whole length bonds.
     The process of applying that pressure makes some of the glue slide out onto the inside of the bottom of the drawer. (HERE'S THE TIP -->) Take a drinking straw and gently, starting at one end, slide the straw forward. All of the wet glue will almost magically go up into the straw, leaving nothing behind. When you've gotten all of the glue up, use scissors to cut off the end of the straw with the glue in it and toss that end, saving the rest of the straw to keep using for the same purpose. :-}
      NO, you do NOT need to put your mouth on the other end of the straw and try to slurp the glue up. It will go up into the straw of it's own accord.

      On the show they applied this tip to working with wood, but mentally I started thinking of numerous types of projects where this tip would come in ever so handy!!! Woodworkers, Crafters, even Scrap booker's might benefit from this oh so useful tip. I HAD to share it!!!! Hope you too find it helpful!!!

I 'plan' on linking this particular posting to:
~ "Make-Do Mondays", hosted by Shari, at 'My Practically Perfect Life' (www.practically-perfect-life.blogspot.com).
~ "Making Your Home Sing Monday('s)", are hosted by Nan, at 'Mom's the Word (I love to hear)' (http://momstheword--livingforhim.blogspot.com/).
~ "Homemaker Mondays ... Yours, Mine & Ours", are hosted by Mom2my9, at '11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven' (http://rtheyallyours.blogspot.com/).
~ "Make Your Monday('s)", are hosted by Kim, at 'Twice Remembered' (http://twiceremembered.blogspot.com/).
~ "I am Blissfully Domestic", hosted by Kim (from 'Up North Mommy'), at 'Blissfully Domestic' (your life, your bliss) (http://blissfullydomestic.com/i-am-blissfully-domestic/).
~ "What I Learned this Week", are hosted by Jo-Lynne, at 'Musings of a Housewife' (http://www.musingsofahousewife.com/).

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4 comments:

  1. Wow! I am so glad the straw does the cleanup on it's own. I am positive that if I sucked from the other end, I would glue up my insides!

    Thanks for linking. This is a wonderful tip and I can 'see' how it really can work. Amazing, simple and so easy. But I am finding the the easy simple solutions are not always obvious. So thanks so much for enlightening and passing on the tip.

    Shari

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  2. Hey that's an awesome tip! I'm going to mention it to my hubby!

    Thanks for your awesome comments on my blog. You should turn that into a blog post! Lots of good stuff there.

    I do like to use things "unexpectedly" from how they were meant, and have resolved most of my hand-me-down issues, lol!

    I also have a file that contains pictures that I like from magazines, just an "ideas" file.

    However, as I said it's that paint color that gets me. But I guess I'll just have to pick something, because it's not like I can't change it!

    Thanks for linking up, my friend!

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  3. I rarely use wood glue, but you're right. I think this would work great for crafting & scrapbooking. Thanks for sharing. I'll remember this tip.

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  4. That is a great tip! Thanks for sharing. I can see many othe applications for this. Thanks

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