I was back in Colorado helping a friend last week at his store. We had to build dressing rooms one night (he owns a costume shop, and Halloween mania was in full swing) and he showed me the neatest trick I’ve yet to see. We stripped a screw real bad with the drill and I was thinking “great, now I have to go buy that special stripped-screw bit or hack-saw a notch or ???” when he just laughed and said “No, problem.” He took the screw-bit out of the drill, then tightened the drill around the head of the screw with the chock just like a normal bit…Wow! He hit reverse and the screw popped right out!
I’ve been building things for YEARS and have never even thought about doing that. There was only a tiny bit of the head exposed and the grip never slipped. He said that he has even tapped three indentations around the head of a stripped screw, then done it when the screw was flush with the wood.
Any other neat tips out there? Aside from the “measure twice, cut once.” variety?
If you have a screwhole in a piece of wood that you must reuse (like in a doorframe), but it’s much too worn/stripped out:
[list=1][li]Remove old screw (using your method if need be; that’s cool!)[/li][li]Get a wooden golf tee and cover it in wood glue.[/li][li]Hammer tee into hole.[/li][li]Let glue dry.[/li][li]Screw new screw into tee.[/li][/list=1]
I did this for where the mounting screws go for my screen door’s damper go into the doorframe. (It’s the third time I’ve had to replace the damper.) Much steadier than even after the first time I replaced it.
I always think of this when I see that “Auto-Hammer” or whatever they call it, the hammer that dispenses nails so you don’t whack your fingers when setting a nail.
Instead of buying a new hammer, get an index card and punch the nail most of the way through it. Then, holding the other edge of the index card, position the nail and set it with your hammer. Finally, tear the card away. Ta-da, no whacked fingers. Works especially well with very small nails, the kind that you can never set without destroying your fingers.
To reduce the likelihood of splitting lumber when driving nails, give the nail’s point a little whack with the hammer to dull the point. This causes the nail to tear the wood fiber instead of simply parting the wood.
A variation of Max Torque’s advice re: paper index cards as nail-holders. I prefer to hold small nails with needlenose pliers.
Put a little grease or liquid soap on a wood screw bafore screwing it in the wood. The liquid works as a lubricant and it will tap the wood easier.
Nitric acid is an excellent wood stain. It will turn Maple green upon contact. After heat is applied to the wood the maple will blush (pink). Then apply linseed oil (raw) and hand rub. The result is a beautiful warm brown that no other rub on stain can ever attain.
[li]Instead of a nail, use a wire nut to cap off an open tube of caulk.[/li]
[li]Attach a bicycle water bottle to your push lawn mower for hot days.[/li]
[li]Clamp a plywood shield to the side of your rotary spreader to keep seed or weed killer from flying off to one side (along a sidewalk, flower bed, etc.)[/li]
[li]Put an old sock over the cylinder of a grease gun.[/li]
[li]Keep a plumbing snake from kinking in the pipe by slipping a length of soaker hose over it (more flexible than regular garden hose)[/li]
[li]Mount a mailbox on a post near your garden hose. Put a hanger on the post to hold the hose, and store gardening items such as trowels, gloves, etc., in the mailbox.[/li]
[li]If an electrical outlet box is below the surface of your wallboard, make spacers out of 1/4" copper tubing to use behind the outlet screws to bring the outlet flush with the wall surface.[/li]
[li]Attach a little sandwich-size tupperware container to the top of your air compressor to hold adapters, gauges, etc.[/li]
[li]For a stubborn screw, apply heat to the head with a soldering iron. The wood surrounding the threads will scorch and shrink.[/li]
[li]If you’re painting over a small water stain and don’t want to buy a whole container of stain sealer, try some white shoe polish if you have it.[/li]
[li]If you have a solid shelf in an area such as a laundry room, attach a length of 3/4" PVC to the top front edge, and you’ll have a place to hang clothes on hangers.[/li]
[li]Clean up after sanding with steel wool - wrap a paper towel around a magnet, pick up the dust, and toss the paper towel.[/li]
[li]Slide foam pipe insulation over the rails of a hand truck to keep from scratching furniture.[/li]
[li]If you have to cut a bolt, twist the nut on first. That way, you can re-thread the cut end by twisting off the nut.[/li]
Emergency cork screw: Drive a coarse drywall screw into the cork, and pull it out with pliers.