Puebco Clipboards
I own more clipboards than bench planes. They manage every project I work on, from new chair designs to glue recipes. I appreciate the way they help me manage things in a chronological manner (and I can quickly change the chronology if necessary).
I dislike the shiny pot-metal-and-hardboard clipboards from office supply stores. They are lowest common denominator products.
So I was curious to see the offerings from Puebco. They have two clipboards that are better than the junk from Staples. They both have unusual mechanisms, which might appeal to you (or not). I love them both.
The Screw Clipboard ($36) is an India-made clipboard that works like no other I’ve seen. You put your papers under the circular screw and turn the brass dial to fasten them. It’s simple. The clipboard holds as firmly as you like, and it’s nicely made.
The other, the A4 Puebco clipboard, is ingenious. It’s made from recycled aluminum and cardboard. The hinge is the interesting part. It looks like a giant binder clip. But to open it you rotate the lever on top of the hinge up. Then you press the lever down to open the hinge. It becomes second nature after only one time.
I can never have too many clipboards. These get used every day.
Does that ever strike a chord. A4 is like the clipboard I started college with in 1959, and I’m still using it. The metal parts are steel, the spring still works, and there are some chips and dents in the hardboard base (seems like masonite). This is the first I’ve seen such things for sale.
Chris… Chris… Chris… you “bought” clipboards? Dude… these are a ball to make and give away… a few Christmas’s ago, I used up a bunch of odd stock scrap… a pair of embedded rare earth magnets in the board, a pair of steel washers in the exotic wood “clip” held on by a hinge… viola! Clip board. I’m not sure what happened to all of them, but my sister has hers hanging on the wall of her kitchen where she proudly displays her grandkids “art” and photographs of her kids families.
Come to think of it…they might be too nice for “shop use” lol.
Happy Thanksgiving and stay safe out there.
I also bought some commercial tack rags.
But your blog post on artisanal diy tack rags is so inspiring. I can’t believe you’d stoop to purchasing a commercial option.
I have one like that A4 that goes back to my days as an office pokey. It is at least 35 years old and still has bunny stickers my oldest daughter applied when she was in grade school. It is the best clipboard, glad to see someone has revived the style. If somebody ever opens as office supply museum I might donate this antique, after I am done using it.
Man are you fussy.
Duuuuuuuude! I was just bitching about my clipboards yesterday. Perfect timing! Now I don’t have to stand there in Staples bitching to myself about how nuttin’ is made to last. Thanks again, Chris. Merci beaucoup!
FWIW, I have been using an aluminum “storage clipboard’ with a similar flip-up handle for quite a long time – made by Saunders Manufacturing, apparently still available (though they make a lot of clipboards that don’t have the useful flip lever).
Does anyone know of a source for the screw hardware? I like to make clipboards as gifts and that would be a nice upgrade.
Would not be difficult to fabricate. Just need a short carriage bolt, a large flat round piece of metal, and a thumbscrew. Drill hole slightly smaller on the back of clipboard board, chisel square so the carriage bolt doesn’t turn, drill hole in round piece and slide on top of bolt, thumbscrew on top. do whatever you like to the round piece, colour or inscriptions or polish or whatever.