Lessons Learned #4: Wax makes things not stick

I was putting the finishing touch on my new workbench top the other night with a coat of wax. While I was at it, I figured I could also wax a few other things, like my miter saw top, router bases, etc.

I also remembered a tip I read somewhere that said if you wax the bars of your clamps, glue won’t stick as much and will be easy to remove. Although that seems to be true, I discovered that if you wax the bars of clamps that work by friction (such as my multitude of the 6” Irwin quick-grip clamps), they won’t work at all.

I discovered this this afternoon when I tried to clamp a few pieces down for jigsawing. Oops. Thankfully a quick rubdown with mineral spirits solved the problem once and for all.

So I guess the complete title of this post is “wax makes things not stick, whether you want them to or not”

So what do you do to keep glue from sticking to these types of clamps?

-- Steve -- University Heights, Ohio