If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, you’ll need lots of different clamps of various sizes and types.

The problem is most clamps don’t have protective pads on the jaws, and even if they came with protection originally, they often crack and fall off, you lose them, and then you have an edge that will damage the workpiece.

If you’re wondering why you need to protect the workpiece, take a look at this: Here’s a C-clamp, and you see the jaw damaged the wood. It made a depression right into the wood. You want to avoid that.

One way is to go out and buy felt peel-and-stick pads meant to go on the bottoms of furniture legs.

Just pop one off and peel off the protective backing; that exposes the adhesive.
Then just put it right on the clamp; it sticks right on.

Now, when you go to clamp something, you can clamp as hard as you want, and you’re not going to damage the wood.

Watch the video above to see Joe’s Simple Solution.

Editorial Contributors
avatar for Joe Truini

Joe Truini

Radio Show Co-Host

Joe Truini is a contractor, author, and the host of “Simple Solutions” on Today’s Homeowner TV and the weekly Today’s Homeowner radio show. He has worked on both large commercial projects and residential remodeling, and has written for national publications such as This Old House and Popular Mechanics. He has also written eight books, including three best-selling shed-building books. Joe lives in Connecticut with his family and enjoys hiking, traveling, and baseball in his spare time.

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