Workshop tip: Flexible wire clips hold tile in a tabletop

Shop Tips

Copper wire and epoxy combine to keep a tile tabletop in place.

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I recently built a Stickley-style table around a lovely Motawi tile. In case the tile ever needed replacement, I didn’t want to cement it in. I also didn’t want it to fall out if the table was inverted for carrying. My solution is simple but effective. I created two clips by attaching 12-gauge copper wire to the tile with a small puddle of epoxy and fitted the ends of the wire into a groove. The wires can be bent with pliers to release the tile.

—TERRY KOVACS, Morrisville, Vt.

Illustrations by Dan Thornton From Fine Woodworking issue #294