The last time I was browsing for cotton and foam swabs for workshop use, I came across orange sticks, which are also marketed as cuticle pusher sticks.
These are inexpensive wood probes that can be used for all kinds of things.
I tend to use mine for cleaning parts, as soldering probes, applying glue or grease, or mixing epoxy.
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You can find these in different lengths. I find 6″ sticks to work well, but shorter sizes seem to be more common. Industrial suppliers also carry these in 7″ lengths.
There are also different styles.
Puritan has swabs with pointed, single bevel, and double bevel ends. The style shown above is Puritan’s 6″ stick (2925), with single bevel and pointed ends.
This seems to be the most commonly available style, with a pointed tip on one end, and single bevel chisel tip on the other.
I bought my USA-made Puritan sticks at an electronics tool supplier. If you want to spend less, there are plenty of wood orange sticks and cuticle pushers available at Amazon.
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Are there any other makeup or personal care items we should add to our toolbox?
fred
I too have been appropriating some of these from my wife for use in the shop. As you say, they have multiple uses – and fill in when toothpicks are too short and bamboo or wood kebob skewers are too thin. Wood hair sticks are another alternative:
https://www.amazon.com/Handmade-Japanese-Chopsticks-Hairstyles-Decorative/dp/B082CL22C6/
Thin wood sticks – starting with toothpicks and working up to dowels and also be used to fill in screw holes (like with hinges) that have lost their ability to grip/retain the screw, A little wood glue on the stick – a few taps into the hole with a hammer – cut off the excess and you often can reuse the screw hole.
Nathan
makeup sponges too. stiffer foam that tollerates some chemicals, and is smooth texture. I don’t so much use them for wood working but I could see it useful for touch up work.
I used them for auto detailing and especially putting down rubber protectant on trim.
fred
Emery boards, abrasive faced nail sponges and nail clippers also can do double duty as shop/craft tools
JoeM
I know it’s going to get a few people riled up… but you can also find wooden skewers in dollar stores that function the same. Plus, you can cut them with strong scissors to get the length you may need at random, and the cut part can actually fit in a pencil sharpener. No, not the hand-crank sized, the carpentry and drafting type. Single/double ended in size, single razor blade for manually sharpening? Yeah… Barbeque Skewers can be bought at a dollar store by the hundreds, and then turned into two-to-three times that by cutting and sharpening them to do the job.
I have even used them as a kind of precise calligraphy quill for filling engravings with enamel paint. Just gotta soak the tip in a bit of water so it gets flexible first, then it becomes a very precise painting quill. Not good for calligraphy, but definitely good for controlling the flow of paint into the engraved details.
Stuart
These are considerably thicker than BBQ skewers, and they hold up much better.
JoeM
Agreed! Just saying… they work also… Shockingly, surprisingly, inexpensive way to get a whole lot of use out of them. As well as stocking up on them quickly.
If I could buy eye-drop bottles empty, in this kind of volume and price? I would. They, too, are amazingly useful when you need them.
Stuart
You can buy eyedropper bottles, although I prefer disposable pipettes.
JoeM
I use one for Olive Oil, when I’m drilling holes in mirrors or glass using my Dremel. Keeps the glass from shattering and keeps all the grinds suspended in oil.
I also have one for Peroxide, and one for Rubbing Alcohol. I use these as mini dispenser bottles on small jobs. I used to use pipettes to clean printer heads though, so I would totally use them as well.
I also use those tabs you get to close bread? To label tech cables, and where they go. These are along the lines of “Life Hacks” and I love them to bits. Make no mistake, Stuart, when I find the cuticle pushers you mention, I’ll try and add them as well. In the mean time… For some reason, cheap barbeque skewers… somewhere around 10 inches or 12? Make awesome resizeable poke or paint tools. Eye Drop Bottles make great small-scale liquid dispensers, and I’ve been using old medicine bottles (from my pharmacy) to make Rubbing Alcohol applicators. I’m Diabetic, so these things save me a lot of time, money, and energy on buying alcohol swabs for using my Insulin. Take a nice tall one, approximately the same diameter as a 2″ wide gauze roll, stuff the bottom with dense cotton balls, or cut a second gauze roll in half for the same purpose… then fill the bottle about 2/3rds with Rubbing Alcohol, and drop a fresh 2″ roll in, let it absorb the liquid. Now the exposed top always has alcohol ready to go for sterilizing fingertips, needle tips, or the places where needle and injector meet. Then you can grab the top of it, pull it out, it stays rolled up and stuck to itself, and you can use the bottom end to disinfect an area for injection, or treat small cuts and wounds that way. When it gets too dirty? Cut the dirty part off, or replace the whole applicator and refill with alcohol.
These have literally saved me over the years! If you have more life hacks like these cuticle pushers… Spew them at us, Stuart! I’m always down to upcycle and better use everyday objects!!
Sorry if I seem excited, Life Hacks are one of my happy places with tool use!
MM
I’ve never used cuticle sticks, but I keep Puritan 6 inch long cotton swabs with wooden handles around, along with 1/8″ diameter bamboo BBQ skewers, and wooden craft sticks like these:
https://www.craftprojectideas.com/products/skinny-sticks/
The 6 inch swabs can be used for cleaning with solvents but the handle end can also be used as a mixing stick for small amounts of epoxy. The 1/8 skewers make good handles for spray-painting parts. The pointed tip is easy to wedge into a gap or a hole to hold the part. They also make good dowel pins for wood repairs. The craft sticks are hardwood so they are also quite strong, they’re good for mixing larger amounts of epoxy especially if you are using additives like microbeads or chopped fiber. I prefer the square cornered craft sticks to the classic “tongue depressor” because they can get into the corners of a mixing cup much easier than the rounded ended depressor. They’re also narrower, which is great when you have to work epoxy or grease down inside a tight spot and a syringe is impractical.
Speaking of syringes, these are a must:
https://www.amazon.com/Monoject-3072331PK12-Curved-Syringe-Height/dp/B073JNTBXJ/
These are very handy for precise dispensing of oil, grease, epoxy, etc. They are good for forcing glue into gaps for crack repair. The tip can be cut with a utility knife to adjust the hole size as needed to dispense thicker materials.
Jared
I’m not entirely sure what I need this for, but it SEEMS like something I might use.
I like the idea about mixing epoxy, maybe applying glues. I just ordered up a 500 pack for less than twenty Canadian dollars on Amazon, so I suppose I’ll be set for awhile.
What other uses might these have? Holding small things while I paint maybe?
fred
Syringes up to 60cc are readily available and useful for both dispensing and sucking up liquids.
At the higher end – are automotive fluid extraction syringes like this 1500cc one from CTA:
https://www.amazon.com/CTA-Tools-7077-Extraction-Capacity/dp/B00BWB06XM
Davethetool
Interesting. I tried the widely available suction pumps on Amazon for about $12-$15 but it was horrible. Not only did it not hold the fluid when removing from the brake fluid unit it also had a lot of fluid that went past the stopper in the syringe. It was useless. I do have one of the higher end fluid extraction units that I love but wanted something smaller like this.
garrett
Good idea. I swipe a few extra disposable chop sticks every time I eat at a Chinese restaurant. They’re great for disposable spudgers, mixing epoxy, filling small holes, etc. I’ll check out the cuticle sticks.
Blocky
And they’re easy to carve with any tip shape you need may need.
Koko The Talking Ape
I’ll second the chopsticks idea, as long as they’re actually bamboo. Compared to these cuticle sticks, bamboo chopsticks are longer, stronger, and cheaper (free, in fact).
Bamboo chopsticks are smooth, splinter-free and flexible, and they’re stronger than most skinny wooden sticks. And you can split them down their entire length, easily. Restaurants typically throw them away after you use them, so you can just hold on to them after you’re done with your meal (but again, make sure they’re actually bamboo, and not that awful white splintery wood.) You can easily shape the tip with a knife.
For cooking, they’re great for flipping bacon and generally placing things precisely. They’re a little narrow for stirring, but I stir with them anyway, because they don’t conduct heat and because I have dozens of them. They are dishwashable, no problem.
In the workshop, you can use them for dowels or jigs. You can also use them to pick up fasteners you’ve dropped into hard-to-reach locations.
If you’re cutting or shaping a lot of it, be aware that bamboo contains silica particles, like some woods, so it will dull your blades relatively quickly.
N. Berg
This is perfect timing to learn of these. I often use toothpicks for a lot of the uses you mentioned but yesterday I had to mix a little epoxy with them and realized I REALLY should buy some skewers, but these seem like an even better fit for what I need.
MT_Noob
I also have these on hand. I find that for me they work much better than bamboo skewers. I still keep the bamboo skewers on hand, but I find I reach for the cuticle sticks far more often, they are more robust and less likely to split/splinter than the bamboo skewers.
The other item from the beauty supply category I use is one of those alcohol pump style dispensers that can dispense just the right amount of IPA onto a rag or cotton ball for spot clean up etc.
Reed Prince
Electronics repair YouTuber xraytonyb turned me on to Eye Tees “precision makeup applicators”, which he found out about from his wife. Similar to standard cotton swabs but firmer, with fibers that are wound tighter and have less of a tendency to get caught on things.
Matt
We use chopsticks through panduit while running wiring in power plant control cabinets… keeps the wires roughly in place and without falling out of the panduit so that we can snap the cover on at the end, then the chopsticks can slide right out of the panduit slots.