When it comes to home improvement, you need information you can trust. Inside each issue of The Family Handyman, you’ll find see-and-solve expert repair techniques, a variety of projects for every room and step-by-step, do-it-yourself photos.
editors@thefamilyhandyman.com POWER WASHER WONDER Any pressure washer can clean a hard surface like concrete, but it takes forever, and if you move the nozzle too fast or too slow, you wind up with streaks and striping. That’s why we were blown away by the results from this whirlybird-style surface cleaner from Briggs & Stratton (No. 6178; $60 at home centers and pressure washer stores). We snapped it onto the end of our power washer and put it to work cleaning dirty concrete. As soon as you pull the trigger, the cleaner lifts off the surface and floats like a hovercraft. We just pushed it along at a steady pace and let it do its job. The spinning jets blasted a clean, uniform 14-in.-wide swath, and the brush skirt prevented damage…
FROM OUR READERS handyhints@thefamilyhandyman.com HIGH-RISE BIRD FEEDER We live close to a natural habitat for deer and find that they enjoy our bird feeder as much as the birds do. To keep the food away from the deer, we drove a steel stake into the ground and attached an extendable painter’s pole to the stake. We then attached the bird feeder to the other end. Now we can lower the bird feeder, fill it and raise it to keep it “for birds only.” Dick Seils NOZZLE CLEANER When you’re done spray-painting, pour a couple ounces of paint thinner into a small container. Remove the nozzle, shake it in the covered container, then reattach the nozzle to the can. Richard Ornorff Get a $100 gift card for your Handy Hint! See…
The United States has always been a home to inventors, tinkerers and problem solvers. Countless innovative tools and materials that we all use were born and bred right here in the U.S.A., and many of them came to life in the workshops of DIYers just like you. We decided to celebrate the stories of a few American trailblazers who created products that are a testament to American ingenuity. editors@thefamilyhandyman.com AMES TOOLS Older than the U.S. Captain John Ames started manufacturing shovels in West Bridgewater, MA, in 1774—that’s before the American Revolution! Shovels were in high demand in the young expanding country, and business was good. During the California gold rush, Ames shovels were so valuable that they were sometimes used as currency! President Lincoln personally asked Oakes Ames (son of…
In 1883, John Michael Kohler coated a large rectangular basin with an enamel powder he’d developed and heated it to 1,700 degrees F. He marketed his product to farmers as a water trough and hog scalder and to the regular consumer as a bathtub. The bathtub was a hit and became the first of thousands of bath products the Kohler Company would go on to manufacture. Today the Kohler Company headquarters is in Kohler, WI, and it has more than 50 manufacturing locations, employing more than 30,000 people worldwide. It’s one of America’s oldest and largest privately held companies. Kohler’s first enamel tub. The original ad copy read: ”Cast-Iron Enameled Water Trough and Hog Scalders. (Five Sizes) When furnished with Legs can be used as a bathing tub.”…
In 1986, Craig Sommerfeld was in the process of building his own home and wanted a way to attach the face frames to his kitchen cabinet carcasses without nailing through the front of them. Being a tool and die maker by trade and a DIYer at heart, he designed and built his own single-hole pocket hole jig. This first “Craig’s Jig” was made from steel and aluminum, and it worked so well that his friends and coworkers encouraged him to build more. He changed the name to “Kreg” out of modesty and started demonstrating the tool at woodworking shows. The professional cabinet shop folks saw the benefit and were the first to buy the tool, but eventually, a whole lot of us weekend warriors wanted a strong and super-easy way…
WHAT IT TAKES COST: $230 or less TIME: One day EXPERIENCE: Beginner TOOLS: Circular saw, drill, clamps, tape measure, caulking gun, framing square, paintbrush, putty knife, hacksaw editors@thefamilyhandyman.com My wife wanted to dress up our patio, so she brought home a few water plants from our local nursery and dropped them in a new lime green plastic planter filled with water. I was impressed with the plants, but the planter…not so much. Being careful not to criticize her buying decision, I decided to ditch the plastic and create a patio pond that would be a little more suitable for the space. I came up with a wooden container that holds both water plants and regular plants. My wife was thrilled with the final results and never even asked where the…
