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5 Unexpected Uses for Painter’s Tape

As DIYers, we all have a pencil, a hammer and screwdrivers in our tool box. But do you have painter’s tape? Today I’m sharing 5 reasons why you’ll want to add a roll of painter’s tape in your tool box!

We all know how to use painter's tape for painting projects, but it has other unexpected uses. Here are 5 ideas why you'll want to add painter's tape to your tool box!

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Painter’s tape image sourced here.

5 Unexpected Uses for Painter’s Tape

Walk into my workshop and you’ll see rolls of painter’s tape piled on my workbench. I love painter’s tape and I use it on nearly every project. Of course I use it for masking when painting, but it’s not-too-sticky characteristics make it a great choice for clamping, protecting, labeling and more.

Helping Hands

Painter’s tape works great to temporarily attach parts. I’m sure you guys know I’m a big fan of using scrap wood pieces to help correctly space parts on my furniture projects. Sometimes I feel like even if I were an octopus I wouldn’t have enough hands to hold everything in place! Painter’s tape acts like those much needed extra hands.

I used the tape to temporarily attach a scrap wood spacer when making the corner cabinet face frame.

5 Tips for Painter's Tape - helping hands

For this project I needed to space slats 13/16″ apart. I placed a penny on a scrap piece of wood and attached with tape to create 13/16″ spacers. You can see I also used tape to attach clamping cauls to the sides of the piece to protect the wood from being damaged by the clamps.

5 Ideas for Painter's Tape - helping hands

Clamping

When gluing small parts together, some are just too small to clamp. Plus, most small parts don’t need a lot of clamping pressure. Enter painter’s tape. The tape can easily conform to the shape of the small parts and provide just enough pressure to keep the parts together.

Protecting

Painter’s tape works great to protect parts. Everything from applying to plywood to prevent chipping when cutting or preventing glue from getting where you don’t want it.

When building these chalkboard projects I applied tape to the cut line before cutting to prevent chipping the chalkboard.

5 Tips for Painter's Tape - protect from chipping

Recently I installed a new threshold at a friend’s house. I applied Minwax Polycrylic Polyurethane to the threshold at my house, then brought the threshold to her house for installation. I applied tape to protect the finish and then cut to length. Thanks to the painter’s tape, no polyurethane was harmed in the making of this threshold!

5 Ideas for Painter's Tape - protect when cutting

Bundling

Just like Frank on American Pickers likes to bundle items for a deal, I like to bundle parts for a project. It’s rare I finish a project on my first trip to my workshop. Sometimes it might be a few days before I can get back there. During the time away from the shop I’ve been known to forget about what parts I’ve cut for a project. When I head back to the shop I’ve also been known to cut those earmarked parts into other parts for the project thinking they are pieces of scrap wood. “Ooops… that piece is waaaay too short now!” To organize my project pieces, and to avoid cutting them into other parts, I bundle them with painter’s tape.

5 Tips for Painter's Tape - bundling

Labeling

For nearly the same reason I bundle, I also use the tape to label. I make notes like “trim off 1/16”, “leg parts for the bar cart” or “DO NOT TOUCH – saw adjusted to rip rails to width!”

Your Turn

Do you have any painter’s tape tips? What do you use it for? Tell me in the comments!

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We all know how to use painter's tape for painting projects, but it has other unexpected uses. Here are 5 ideas why you'll want to add painter's tape to your tool box!

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