Popsicle Stick Toaster Tongs

I've been eating a lot of bagels lately and I've been alternating between burning my fingers to pull them out of the toaster (because I'm impatient and want to eat them nice and hot) or using chopsticks. I thought, "This is ridiculous." My mom had some pretty basic toaster tongs, so I figured I would just make some of the many jumbo craft sticks I have left over from my popsicle stick playing cards. These are easy to put together and work great.

Instructable 262

Supplies:

• Jumbo Craft Sticks or regular popsicle sticks - You'll need at least 4 but it is good to have extras in case of mistakes.
• Wood Glue - I used Elmer's wood glue but these are just craft sticks so lots of glues should work. The better the glue, the better the hold.
• good Scissors
• Clamps - You don't need anything fancy, just to hold the sticks together while the glue is drying. Clothespins might work as well.
• Wax Paper - I just like gluing on top of wax paper.
• Wood Burner (optional)

For these toaster tongs, you will need 2 full sized sticks and 10 1" long pieces. The number of small pieces can vary, that's just how many I used.

Leave 2 sticks as they are. With 2 other sticks, mark and cut 1" pieces. I got 5 pieces from each stick. These are fairly easy to cut with scissors, but they can break (as shown in the third image). If that happens, I suggest just cutting a new piece. You can try to use the broken pieces if you want, it's your project :) I just used broken ones to do wood burn tests.

Line them up and see if the size looks right to you (image 4).

If you are going to burn a cute design onto your toaster tongs, I advise you do it now. I ended up doing it at the end, but it would be easier to do it now before it's assembled, and if you screw up, you can always just grab another stick to use.

I went with a little piece of bread with lines on it and squiggle lines above it to signify it is toasted and then the word toast. It was kind of a combination of things I found when googling images of "Toaster Tongs" and "Toast Icon."

You can put it where your hand will go or closer to the end that will grab the toast like I did.

Glue all your pieces together.

I started by lining up and gluing the smaller pieces one by one.

Once all of those were together, I glued a stick to each side. If you wood burned a design on one, make sure you glue it on the correct way.

Wipe off any excess glue right away.

Clamp your pieces together so they dry tightly together. I used some wax paper to protect the sticks from the little clamps.

Give the glue time to dry. Mine said 30 minutes to overnight. I just left them overnight because I didn't need them right away anyway. While they aren't fragile, don't be unnecessarily rough with them. They are just popsicle sticks after all.

These are also nice if you have a utensils holder as they just hook right on the side for easy access and storage.