I bet this has been done before but I thought I would share it with others on this site. It works fantastic for clamping stems. I have tried other methods but this one works flawlessly.

The bungee stretches to hold the stem pieces tight, has great holding power and does not cause any damage to the strips. I love it. I am finding I do not like to use much bungee on my decks anyway so I have a lot of bungee sitting in the shop that I can use and not worry about getting glue on it.