I haven’t seen a bench tip posted for a while so I thought I would
pass this one along. I got it from my apprentice a few years ago. If
you are like me you have more hand pieces than foredoms for them to
fit on. I use quick change type, the standard chuck type and a hammer
hand piece that all use to roll around in my bench in a drawer or the
pan getting dust in the connections and generally getting in the way.
I never where I could find them for a quick change. Then I saw my
appentice use a mop clip mounted on the bench to hold the hand piece
when not in use. It is a metal clip with a spring load designed to be
mounted on the wall and hold brooms and mops. Fits a hand piece
perfect. Now I have three of them on my two benches. One bench for wax
the other for metal. I hang the handpieces in the clip with the
connection end down so they don’t collect dust in the greased
fittings. Always where I can find them, easy to retreive and quick to
change out. Works for me. Hope it helps someone else to get their
bench organized.(is organized a real word???
Frank Goss
Frank, great idea from your apprentice. “Use mop clips to hold
multiple handpieces on the work bench”. Throughout many seasons of
instructing ambitious prominent diamond setters, I also search for
unpublished techniques that my students freely exchange. I would like
to see more of this type of communication over orchid as it is
intended. Let it be a lesson to all orchidians that there is always
someone who knows something that your don’t…R. Wooding
My simple tip that has made a supreme change in the appearance of my
once tattered fingers is rubber finger tips. They are great for
buffing when the metal gets hot and for avoiding that often nick on
the skin from the grinder. I was warned about using gloves for
buffing in school and from Orchid veterans due to the severe risks of
losing a digit. I buy the Swingline brand from the office supply
($1.60 for 24). The rubber is thicker than other brands and if you go
to Staples, they don’t stock them but they will order them from their
catalog and arrive the following day. They last a long time and they
come in 4 sizes. Check them out!
Rebecca. San Diego where the sun is often shining.