Well when ironing, the heat has the potential to warp boards, especially on larger projects, so using masking tape to hold everything together, big or small, helps better control the shape of it and keep boards from getting ruined. Taping and poking holes in the tape is extra time for sure, but I found very quickly it was more reliable than the normal way of doing pieces. It'll take awhile to get use to doing everything and there are techniques to learn about doing it right every time, but I personally recommend the tape method.