Shoutout to the guy who showed me how to fit a curved damper plate in 10 minutes flat

Been doing this 8 years and always fought with those things for an hour plus. One old timer at the shop in Kansas City showed me a method with a porta-band and a 2x4 jig that cut my time down to nothing. Anyone else pick up a trick that made you feel dumb for not learning it sooner?

3 comments

3 Comments

hayden1441mo ago

Funny how the best tricks are never in the manual, they just get passed around like a secret handshake. It's the same with half the stuff I've learned that actually works.

river3201mo ago

That porta-band trick is the real deal. I use a 2x4 with a notch cut out and a quick clamp to hold the plate steady. First time I tried it I saved about 45 minutes of fighting and cussing. Makes you wonder why nobody puts that in the damn manual.

elliot_taylor1mo ago

That notch in the 2x4 is the whole secret. I had a guy in Wichita show me that trick on a re-roof job back in 2017. He just drew it on a scrap board with a sharpie and cut it with a jigsaw in maybe 2 minutes. I felt like a complete idiot for all those years I just held the plate in a vice and tried to eyeball it with a grinder. The curved plates always fight back if you don't lock them in tight. That little jig makes it so you don't burn up your cutoff wheels either.