Getting the right fit in research

Back when I was in high school (somewhere around when dinosaurs wandered the earth), if you were "going steady" with a boy you got his class ring to wear and it was always too big! The solution was a tedious method of wrapping the back of the ring with thread and then sealing each layer with fingernail polish. When you broke up, the poor guy got the ring back complete with the "resizing". How he removed the layers I'll never know!