Home hacks just as brilliant today as they were 100 years ago

Here’s a quick and simple shoe scraper that’s portable but won’t slide around when you use it. Screw a large, stiff-bristle scrub brush to a piece of plywood about 300mm wide x 350mm long. Your weight on the plywood base keeps it stationary while you scrape each shoe on the scrub brush. You can wash the scraper with a hose, and store it out of sight when not using it.

Here’s how to make a clamp out of scrap lumber for a flat project of any size. Screw one block at each end of a length of board that’s slightly longer than the project to be clamped. Attach each block with just one screw so it will pivot for perfect alignment. Cut a couple of wedge-shaped pieces of wood and drive them between one of the blocks and the project.

Discover 20 secret clamping tricks from woodworkers you can use.

Make this circular saw cutoff guide from almost any straight pieces of scrap wood. Attach the two pieces with glue and screws at exact right angles to each other. Make the right-hand arm of the guide a bit longer than the distance from the blade to the left edge of the saw’s shoe; the first time you use the guide, the saw will trim off the excess. From then on, just line up the right end of the guide with your cut mark, and cut with the shoe against the shoe guide for a straight, square cut.

Check out our essential guide to circular saws.

You don’t have to struggle trying to lug around full sheets of plywood or drywall. Just tie together the two ends of a length of rope about 5.5m long. Hook this loop around the two bottom corners of the sheet to form a handle.

When cutting with a handsaw, it’s hard to get an accurate start. To solve this problem, use a C-clamp to secure a scrap wood block along the cutting line. This keeps the saw on the cutting line until the blade has a good start in the cut.

Here’s our guide to manual saws.

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Source: Family Handyman