Quick Tips In the Workshop / In the Shop Screws & Nails Tool Box In the Shop Quick Tips Categories Reader’s Tip: Take a scrap piece of wood left over from your project and sand it with clean sandpaper. Mix the sawdust with glue until it forms a paste. Fill countersunk nail holes after staining with this mixture to prevent dark nail spots. (A trick my grandfather used. He was a finished Cabinetmaker and General Contractor.) Reader’s Tip: I have a good way to remember which way to turn a screwdriver: "Righty-tighty, Lefty-loosey" (My father taught it to me and I have never had a hard time remembering which way to turn.) - Heather Smits Ironically, tools that are used and stored with the utmost care often get damaged when they’re lying out on a hard, cluttered workbench. This is far less likely to happen if you keep a foam rubber mat or a piece of carpet remnant on your workbench specifically for parking your tools temporarily when you’re using them. A shoe bag on a wall or inside a closet door of your workshop makes an excellent place to store plastic bottles of shop liquids or cans of hardware. It keeps them from being knocked over, and saves valuable shelf space. When you lose a glue cap or if the top of a glue tube splits, all is not lost. A screw-on wire cap used to splice wires makes a good replacement top that is also easy to open and close. Keep a supply of various sizes of wire caps on hand for this and similar purposes. Many do-it-yourselfers don’t realize that normal humidity changes can shorten the life of sandpaper, sanding belts, and other abrasive sheets (even nail emery boards). Store these items in zip-lock plastic bags or in sealed plastic containers to keep them dry. To remove stubborn rust on your tools, rub them with a soap-filled steel wool pad dipped in kerosene or turpentine. Then briskly rub with wadded aluminum foil. If you need more workbench storage space, slide an old dresser under the bench and use the drawers for storage. Baby food jars are great for holding screws, washers, nuts, etc. Nothing is worse than finishing a gluing job only to find that the clamps or wood blocks are stuck to the wood. Avoid this by placing sheets of wax paper between surfaces and the clamps. If you don’t have clamps, improvise. A pile of books on joints, cord around chair or stool legs—whatever it takes to apply pressure while the glue dries. (Make sure glue does not come in contact with these improvised clamps.) You can use old thread spools to make a clamp. Find a bolt long and narrow enough to fit through the spools and the workpiece. Then insert the bolt through the spool holes and tighten a wing nut to close the "jaws." When regluing drawers, always test the fit before the glue dries -- and then remove the drawers immediately. You’ll save yourself a lot of work if you take the time to wipe excess glue around joints with a cloth before it dries. To keep screwdrivers handy, slide the blades through the mesh in plastic bent baskets nailed to the shop wall. If you have small children, prevent them from ever being able to plug in a power tool by running a small padlock through the hole in one of the plug prongs. Only remove the lock when your ready to use the tool. If you buy several padlocks at the same time, you’ll have ample supply of locks that use the common key, and an ample supply of extra keys to replace lost ones. To store nuts and washers so they’re easy to see and retrieve, hang them on large key rings or clip rings like those used to hang shower curtains. Look for rings with latches that are easy to manipulate but still secure. Similar sized nuts or washers can be hung on a small towel rack with other rings or by itself on a perforated hook. Why put up with the frustration and wasted time of opening one small box after another to find the right nail or screw? Attach a sample nail or screw to the outside with a rubber band or a dab of glue. Don’t throw away worn out kitchen sponges. Use them as hand savers in the workshop. When you’re using a metal file or a screwdriver, for example, a sponge wrapped around the tool can make it more comfortable to hold and can keep it from slipping if your hands perspire. Keep tool cords and extension cords from tangling or getting in your way between jobs. Loop the cords loosely and stick them into cardboard tubes left over from rolls of paper towels, wax paper or foil wrap. For a permanent hanger, tie rawhide or heavy twine behind the plug of an extension cord. Wrap around the rolled-up cord, tie a bow and hang by one of the bow loops. If a screw head has been worn down or the slot has been badly damaged, a screwdriver may not be able to remove it. Instead of using a screwdriver in such a situation, try fitting a center punch into the screw slot. Put the point of the punch off center to the right and at an angle and then tap the punch with a hammer to rotate the head counterclockwise until it is loose enough to work with a screwdriver. Among the trickiest aspects of drilling a hole is achieving the right depth. To solve this problem, measure from the tip of a drill bit up along its shaft and wind a strip of masking tape at the depth you want. When you drill, stop when the bottom edge of the tape just reaches the surface of the piece you are working on. Don’t worry about accidentally pulling the plug out of an extension cord the next time you’re working with a power tool. Work together the ends of the tool cord and the extension cord as if you were going to tie a knot. Then, instead of tightening the knot, plug in the cords together. For easy workshop measuring, fasten a yardstick to the edges of the workbench. Cut keyhole slots in the yardstick so you can remove it when you need it elsewhere. An old nylon stocking makes an effective strainer if you’re out of cheese cloth. Nylon rope that has been cut should have the raw end heated to prevent fraying. Ordinary rope can be dipped in shellac or varathane. To prevent metal tubing from denting when you saw it, insert a round dowel that fits tightly into the tube. If you hang tools on a pegboard wall, outline each tool with a magic marker so you’ll know at a glance where each one goes. You’ll also know when a tool hasn’t been replaced. Keep a supply of emery boards on hand. They’re very useful when you need to sand small pieces, tiny cuts, or a surface that is difficult to reach. To prevent a screwdriver from slipping, rub chalk on its blade. Plywood frequently splits when you begin sawing it. You can prevent this by applying a strip of masking tape at the point where you plan to start. To reduce splintering when crosscutting, place the board so that the growth rings arc downward. When feeding work into a scroll saw or bandsaw, wear rubber thimbles—the kind used by mail sorters—on the thumb and middle finger of each hand for extra traction. Sandpaper clogs fast, usually before it is worn out. Clean clogged sandpaper and give it a new life by vacuuming it or rubbing a fine bristled brush back and forth across the grit. Thin pieces of wood (such as moldings) can easily split when they’re nailed. Keep this from happening by blunting the pointed tip of each nail with a few hammer taps before you use it. The newly blunted tip will then push through the wood rather than splitting it. If you’re out of penetrating oil, you can substitute hydrogen peroxide or lemon juice. When drilling smooth sheet metal, stick a piece of masking tape where the center of the hole will be. This prevents the bit from wandering. Email your favorite tips to us and we'll post them. 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