72
You can use a piece of cardboard to hold the nail. There are some variation in this method:
make a hole and put the nail inside, you can tear the cardboard when the nail is embedded enough
make a cut in the cardboard and put the nail inside, you can use this for several nails without need to tear it
for bigger nails make a stripe of cardboard and wrap it ...
40
To make sure you don't hurt your fingers, you can use a clothespin to hold the nail in place.
Image from Pinterest
This is very safe and probably more effective than using your fingers.
35
There's clothespin trick, but that one is almost a meme at this point.
So, how about the traditional approach:
Set the nail.
Place the tip of the nail where you want to drive your nail and just push it in with your fingers. If the surface is too hard to push it in by hand, grip the hammer higher (near the head) and gently tap the nail till its embedded ...
33
Ah. This is why you should always have spare screws on hand. Fortunately, there is a way...
Light Method
Most screws are silver. Shine a flashlight into the carpet and look for little silvery glints. This may take some time, but you'll probably find it. If your carpet is unnaturally thick...
Magnet Method
Take a powerful magnet (like a bar magnet, hardware ...
30
Try placing a rubber band between the head of the screw and the screwdriver.
This usually helps increase friction.
26
Toothpaste
Advantages:
You probably already have it.
A nail hole filled with toothpaste looks less obvious than a nail hole from a distance
Very life-hacky, in that special "I remember being a poor student" way
Disadvantages:
A nail hole filled with toothpaste looks pretty obvious up-close. Especially if you're using neon green toothpaste with a ...
24
The trick is not to hold the nail when you are swinging your hammer hard. Hold the nail and gently tap with the hammer just enough so the nail will stick in the wood without having to hold it. After that, you can drive it home.
Another trick is to pre-drill the hole with a tiny drill bit before hammering it in. This should allow you to push the nail into ...
22
I have done this. Lie down on the floor and get your eye as close to the level of the carpet, then look around. You'll have an easier time spotting the lost screw this way because it'll rise up along the landscape of the floor. Bonus points - no extra equipment needed.
19
I don't carry clothespins in my toolbox, but I DO have needlenose pliers. Just hold the nail with them until you get it started. Really good with small brads!
19
You definitely don't want to hack a replacement for lugnuts, since it's a major safety issue. What you really need is more lugnuts.
Luckily, you have some! Take some off the other wheels, and evenly distribute them between all four wheels. Since most consumer vehicles have 4-6 nuts on each (heavier vehicles tend to have more), you should be missing two at ...
15
Don't hold the nail with thumb and forefinger!
Instead hold it between forefinger and middlefinger, fingernails resting on the wood.
Now when you hit your fingers it won't hurt nearly as much.
And like Apaul said there's no need to hit the nail very hard at first. If you do, a half-miss will make the nail shoot away and leave an ugly mark on the wood.
By ...
15
There are a few good options for this
White Vinegar
This is slower, but works really well. Soak the tools in white vinegar for about 24 hours. Most of the rust will come off, and the rest will easily come of by scraping it.
Baking Soda Paste
Mix baking soda with water until a paste that you can apply on the tool. Use a toothbrush to scrub off the baking soda....
14
The best "hack" is the way you look for the screw. Do what pilots do. Move the eyes one section at a time, pausing for a moment, looking at that little bit of the sky. Instead of sweeping the eyes so much, concentrate on the floor in little squares, fully studying each square. This technique works even when the color of the item is close to that of the floor....
14
There are a few ways to destroy a magnet.
By impact
Rough handling (dropping, hitting, etc.) a magnetized item can weaken it as well as creating one from iron bearing metal. That's how tools become magnetized in the first place. (Isn't that ironic?) Chances are that all of the handling was random so undoing it must not be random to be most efficient. You'll ...
12
A few sites recommend using a flat head screw driver. Find one that fits tightly across the inside of the hex head going from corner to corner and turn it gently.
Personally I would go with a Torx bit. If you have an electric drill check the bits that came with it, there's a good chance that you have some. They will work for hex bolts with a lot less ...
12
I think the absolute definitive way to do it is with electrolysis. This is where you place the rusty component in an electrolytic solution (can be water with a salt dissolved in it) and run a current through the rusty piece and a "sacrificial" piece of metal via the solution. It works similarly to electroplating but instead of depositing a coating on a metal,...
12
I'll give you two options for making a level of your own. Both are based on the simple fact that water is level, and will keep being level even going through a hose.
Level based on glass of water
The most rudimentary level you can have is a single container of water, and just watch the level of the water. This can be a glass bowl, or as simple as a single ...
11
No, the hacksaw you pick up at your local hardware store is not food grade no matter how much you clean or scrape. If you are concerned about food safety, you don't know what materials are used in their construction or what the blade, paint, lubricants, frame, and other workings might have been treated with.
They make butcher saws with stainless steel ...
10
If the head is not counter sunk, a pair of lock grip pliers (vice grips) can be used to grasp the head of the screw and turn it.
10
You can use a good knife or other very sharp and very hard tool and make small parallel scratches on the screw (whatever is left of it), alternatively one deeper scratch in the middle. Then use the hack of abby and a flat tool. I found it most useful to use the inbus (hexagonal screw) bit of my tools to be perfect for this. Depending on the situation you ...
10
Use a ramp to push it into your trunk. You can take the ramp with you to unload at your grammy's home...
10
Similar to Stan's answer, I would cut through it - but with a box cutter or razor blade. Just press the blade into any part of the tangle and slice across it. Then move to another spot and repeat. Pieces of string will start falling off. You might even be able to pull some lengths of string off with your fingers or pliers. I'd use pliers because they can ...
9
When moving a cement mixer recently I used a small trailer, and self built ramp. The ramp consisted of two lengths of wood, 2"x4" (48 mm x 198 mm) and 5 ft (150 cm) length. Here is an image of how you could make the ramp:
The trick to using lenghts of wood for a ramp, is to make sure that they doesn't break nor slip. Proper dimensioned planks ensure no ...
9
A seam-ripper can be used to penetrate the tight wrap and cut several layers of it at once. Push the point through the knot to cut through it. After this, there will be loose threads (and hair) to unwind. Repeated use will let you get the bulk of the stuff off each side of each wheel.
When you get down to the last few threads, you'll need sharp tweezers to ...
8
1. Listen to where it went.
This might be weird but it is my first resort. When you drop a screw, focus on the sound of the screw hitting the floor while keeping your head still. Keep focusing on the sound up to 2 seconds after the sound has stopped.
Keeping your head still is important because it makes it easier for the brain to process the sound that has ...
8
Frequently, there is. Simply loosen the strap, take it off the motor, give the strap one twist, reconnect it to the motor, and tighten the belt. The belt now makes a figure-of-eight instead of a simple loop, which effectively reverses the direction of the motor.
Though it does put a bit more wear on your belt since the belt will rub on itself at the X of ...
7
Start the nail first, ie a light tap on the nail, enough to at least have the nail support it self in the wood or what ever you are nailing into first. Then move your hand and swing away.
If your having to go to the clothesline to hammer in a nail, then maybe you should put the hammer down and try a different hobby LOL, just kidding
Merry christmas.
7
As you mentioned, a small flat screwdriver works best. However, you can use basically anything that's thin, stiff, and non-round. I used to do this all the time to my brother to piss him off (ah, youth).
Some of the things I've used:
The metal clip from a cheap pen
A paperclip with the very tip bent to a 90 degree angle (to simulate a screwdriver)
A safety ...
7
Another option I didn't say is simply to pinch the wire between the thumbnail and index finger and pull. The insulation will tear and will not damage the wire inside. Sometimes it helps to chafe the insulation a bit with the thumbnail before pulling. Be careful where the wire is being pulled from. It should be held by pinching with the other hand.
I never ...
7
Maybe it would work if you heat a thin needle to the point where it melts the plastic the tip is made of, stick it into the stuck part, wait till it cools and solidifies, then pull the needle? Could check first on the other part of the broken tip to see if it would work on that kind of plastic. Or use a really thin drill to drill a hole in the center, put a ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible