This a collection of little bits of information that aren’t yet worth a whole blog entry. When there’s ten tips, they’ll be archived in the blog so that they’re searchable and a new page will be started. Some of these tips might later turn into full blog entries or show up in videos or designs. Comments on these techniques? Add them to the General Comments section or wait until they’re archived in a blog entry. Archives: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6.

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Handtruck padding: A simple way to make your handtruck more ice carving-friendly is to cover the handtruck tubing where it comes into contact with ice with pipe insulation. Use duct tape to attach cut lengths of insulation to the handtruck and you will get a little more padding to protect your sculptures. Also, ice won’t slide off the dolly as easily and if you have a metal handtruck, then the insulation will keep the warm metal from melting marks into your ice. (3/24/08)

Handtruck wheels: Heavy duty handtrucks with air-filled tires are great for moving blocks of ice and some heavy carvings because they keep the load low to the ground while the air-filled tires absorb a lot of the bumps. Unfortunately, if you’ve ever had to move ice when you had a flat tire, then at that moment, you probably didn’t appreciate those tires. One possible solution is to replace the air-filled tires with solid rubber tires which are available at Home Depot and other places. You give away some of the shock absorption, but you get better reliability. (3/22/08)