Tips & Techniques

A lot of light fixtures have aluminum lamp sockets, and the bases of the bulbs are also aluminum. After several surprisingly difficult callbacks to replace burned-out bulbs that were frozen in…

I used to work the graveyard shift at a company that made store fixtures. One night, at about 3 a.m., I had to lay out a sign for a restaurant.…

The tip Supporting a sink cutoutshows a method for lifting sink cutouts with a hammer. As a remodeler for the past 15 years, I've done my share of countertops and sink…

I've had people give me some pretty strange looks when I carry my drywall-taping machine onto a job site. But the machine's looks are deceiving. As shown in the drawing,…

As trim carpenters, we often run into problems when windows or doors are not hung plumb or parallel to adjacent millwork. Take the situation shown in the drawing, for example.…

The next time you have a stack of shelves or cabinet doors to paint, don't lean them against the wall. Instead, try hanging them from a rope that has been…

My partner had to trim out a half-round window this week. After cutting out the round casings with a jigsaw, he tried sanding the edges with a 5-in. random-orbit sander.…

I have been wrapping my hammer handles (right below the head) with electrician's tape for years. This wrapping strengthens the weakest spot in the handle. Recently, a friend from Washington…

Next time you need just a little amount of setting-type drywall compound, try this: Place the amount of dry compound you think you will need in a 1-gal. heavy-duty Ziploc…

Sometimes a clamp is more useful if it pushes things apart rather than draws them together. When I had to coax ceiling boards into position on a project, I applied this…