doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com I found these to be helpful

Clean sheets, cheap and easy for mixing epoxy, non-absorbent and I don't have to spend time looking for something to mix on. I happen to have a polishing stick and a mandrel laying on the bench as well. The mandrel is for holding the barrels during polish and allows you to rotate them when working on them.

SKB,
I keep the plastic lid from a large coffee can on my bench all the time to mix epoxy on. After the left-over epoxy cures, I just flex the lid and it falls off. I was surprised it does not adhere better, maybe because it is not clamped. Anyway, it is always there and handy.
Mike

One other thing I like about the "clean sheets" is that they hold up to heat, I use a heat gun to soften epoxy often and no issues.

Mike, I do pretty much the same for mixing adhesives, body fillers, etc. It is too quick and easy to use a plastic can lid, or quickly cut a piece of plastic from a gallon milk jug, bleach jug, or drink bottle to waste time buying dedicated mixing sheets. It all ends up in the recycling bin anyway, so why add more to the waste stream? As you say, it can often be reused after popping off the cured residue. Another thing that works well is those large slick cards that all the candidates flood your mailbox with before an election. No need to try to reuse them because they send out so many. That's the only good thing I get from anti-gun Democrats.

There are many plastics like Polypropylene, Thermoplastic Olefin, etc. that epoxy and other adhesives don't stick to very well. That's why they sell chemical adhesion promoters to spray on plastic auto bumpers, etc. before using the special plastic repair adhesives. Even then, the repairs often fail, so I quit buying those very expensive adhesives and bought an old soldering gun to use just for plastic welding.

Any good idea is always welcome. Having spent many rears working as a bench engineer the sticky problem of mixing and using Epoxy Adhesive was over years given to the other Engineers in the workshop that did over time sped to other establishments. The idea was to use that two inch wide "Brown Parcel Tape" though it is available in many colours and designs. Just cut a length off the roll it was usually about four inches long and stick it down to the bench top making a small turn over at one end of the tape for making easy removal, to make the area larger just add more tape at the side of the first with a small overlap. The best part of this is that you do not have to hold it when you are mixing it stays put and can not accidently knocked off on the floor or any where else foe that matter. Disposal is simple pull it of the bench top and fold , the tapes adhesive backing keeps it all enclosed if the Adhesive has not set.

There's a trick I found years ago that I like when doing the final sanding/fitting of recoil pads. I keep different grits of 1" wide emery cloth in my farm shop for obvious reasons, and one day noticed that the free paint stirring sticks that you get when you buy house paint are the same width. I glue strips of the emery onto both sides of the sticks, with contact cement. They last a surprisingly long time, and are like using a file, very controllable. I didn't figure there was much need for pics ....... it's pretty self-explanatory. You'll probably find, like me, that they're useful for other jobs besides recoil pads.

BTW, the sticks I get now aren't the thin ones with a little "handle shape" on one end, they are just pine slats cut 1" wide, about 12" long, and about 1/4" thick, much stronger than the old, thin ones. They're flat on each side, not curved like some I've seen.

I do the same thing with tongue depressors, works great.