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.
Even though it’s a solitary activity (or maybe because it is?), I love reading. Newspapers. Magazines—of course. And books. In a triumph of nerdiness, I boast to friends that I’ve visited the very first Little Free Library (LFL). It’s in Hudson, Wisconsin, just across the state line from my hometown. You’ve seen these roadside book shacks, right? Small wooden shelters stamped with “Take a book. Share a book” are everywhere. I can’t pass one without stopping to look for my next read. The design and construction are as important to me as the books inside. For the first LFL I made, I added a hand-cut and etched metal roof, plus a purple-trimmed door. Then, for a neighbor, I made one with a cool (I thought) side door shaped like an…
facebook.com/thefamilyhandyman pinterest.com/family_handyman youtube.com/thefamilyhandyman instagram.com/familyhandyman tiktok.com/@familyhandyman HART TOOLS IS CHARGED UP We recently visited the TTI Group headquarters in Anderson, South Carolina, to learn what’s new at its Hart Tools division. The company is expanding its lineup of outdoor tools, with both 20-volt and 40-volt battery power—no power cords or gas engines in this product mix. Hart president Jason Morris introduced several new 40-volt outdoorfocused tools, which he referred to as “our gas replacement line.” Started in 1983 with a focus on hammers, Hart now manufactures power tools sold only at Walmart. With a growing line of 20-volt power tools, Hart is set on making Walmart credible as a DIY destination. At the headquarters, we saw a company determined to do three things: First, grow a DIY following in a competitive…
NEW NAME, TRUSTED BRAND You might not recognize the brand name, but you probably recognize the color scheme. I have a few older Hitachi tools in my shop that I really like, so I was excited to try out this new sliding miter saw bearing the Metabo name. The C10FSHCT 10-in. sliding miter saw didn’t disappoint. It has all the features I want and one I didn’t even know I wanted. All the controls are right up front, so there’s no reaching around to the back of the saw to adjust the bevel angle. The saw has nine detents for common angle settings and a detent lockout for those “in-between” angles. Lights? Got ’em. Both an LED work light and a laser to show the cutting line are built in.…
FLEXIBLE FLASHLIGHT MOUNT Tired of holding a flashlight between your teeth while working in the dark? Make a light stand by bending a 2-ft. section of 12-or 14-gauge electrical cable into a U-shape. Then tape the light to the ends of the cable. The wire can be shaped into a hands-free support base for the flashlight or bent into a hook for hanging. PAUL AND HAYLEE LYTLE HAND AND BRUSH CLEANER Heavy-duty hand cleaner is great for cleaning paintbrushes too. I put a dab of cleaner on the brush and work it into the bristles. It handles both oil-and water-based paints and keeps the bristles soft. JOE FOSTER SHARE YOUR HANDY HINTS WITH US submissions@familyhandyman.com SCRAPER IN A PINCH If you ever need a scraper for a quick fix, clamp…
BUILDING WITH HEMP? YES, YOU CAN Like siblings who grow up with unique personalities, hemp and marijuana both come from the same plant family (Cannabaceae) but they have different character traits, and people enjoy the products for different reasons. We are here to talk about hemp and its benefits to builders and woodworkers. Hemp is one of the fastestgrowing plants on earth; it can be harvested in three to four months. Speedy regeneration makes it popular for commercial goods. Hemp fibers have been spun into usable material for millennia worldwide. And our forefathers, including Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, documented hemp farming. No record exists of their recreational use of hemp; that’s not why they farmed it. The 2018 U.S. Farm Bill was amended to legalize agricultural hemp. That changed…
You might be familiar with those short, stout posts used around buildings, as roadway dividers, or in harbors to moor large vessels. They’re called bollard posts because, as the story goes, they resemble tree trunks, which are also known as “boles.” You might need that knowledge for a trivia contest someday. For me, the bollard idea presented design possibilities for both woodworking and lighting, which are combined in these plans for decorative path lights. MEET THE BUILDER GLENN HANSEN, DEPUTY EDITOR, DOESN’T LIKE TRIPPING ON DARK PATHWAYS. UMBRELLA LIGHT I worked on a few versions of this umbrella light (long curved legs, stout 2x4 uprights, etc.), but I ended up making relatively short 1x2 cedar arms and capping them with a simple cedar square with a light in the middle.…
