These tool hacks can vastly increase your productivity and efficiency by getting the most out of your everyday tools.
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Tool Hacks: New Uses for Old Tools
Neat Hacks Using Old Tools
Our tasks can be a lot easier if we have the right tools within our reach. What if the right equipment is not in your toolbox?
Below are ingenious DIY tool hacks that can cut down your work time and save your hard-earned money just by using the full potential of your already existing tools.
1. Cut a PVC Pipe Using a String
Cutting mounted PVC pipes can be difficult and tricky if you don't have the right tools, but with the use of a string, you can easily slice through pipes. The string works as quickly as a saw and fits into tight spaces.
All you have to do is cut a shallow notch using a file or hacksaw blade to give it a starting point and then pull the string back and forth until the pipe comes loose.
2. Shine Shoes with a Drill
Polishing your shoes to look new and shiny can take a great deal of your time. To reduce the time you spend making your dull shoes glossy, this drill machine hack can simply do the task.
Just change your drill bit with a buffing ball, and it will instantly transform into a high-speed polisher. You can also apply polish to your shoes before buffing to make them look even more lustrous.
What Is Buffing? It is the process of removing excessive residue on a surface to either bring out the gloss or even out the appearance or shine.
3. Use a Comb to Hold a Nail
Use a comb to hold in a nail as you hammer. The worst thing without it is you can break your finger! How will you like this pic then? pic.twitter.com/pufr0fW8PC
— Loker Student Union (@csudh_lsu) March 17, 2017
Have you experienced accidentally bashing your fingers while hammering a nail? Now, you don't have to feel the excruciating pain ever again!
Just insert the nail between the teeth of a comb to hold it in place before you hit it with a hammer.
4. Clean with a Leaf Blower
Don't limit your good old leaf blower to a single yard task. After all, it's also an excellent cleaning tool which performs faster than a broom or vacuum.
You can use it to dust your room, clean cobwebs in your garage, dry your car, air out sheds, and a whole a lot more.
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5. Mix Concrete Using a Rake
Instead of using a hoe, you can try a garden rake to mix concrete. The rake tines can do an exceptional job in mixing water and powder without splashing too much water over the edge.
Besides, pushing powder around the mixing tub with a hoe can consume a lot of your valuable time.
6. Glue with an Air Compressor
Applying glue into cracks using a tiny brush or toothpick can require you to spend hours of doing it. You can glue a lot faster, deeper, and evenly by using an air compressor.
Just squeeze a line of glue along the crack, then blast it with an air compressor to force the glue inside. This will also start the drying process, thus helping you finish your job quicker.
You can also use the air compressor for varnishing as it can drive the stain deep into the grooves, inside corners, carvings, or any other hard to reach spots.
7. Shorten Bolt Using a Drill
Using a drill to cut a bolt is an easy and convenient method than the existing methods. https://t.co/apDey1zUqd pic.twitter.com/tyydGLHPHb
— moglix (@moglix) August 26, 2016
If there's a need to shorten a long bolt, you can simply do it by using a power drill and a hacksaw. The first thing you have to do is mark the spot on the bolt where you want to cut it.
Screw two nuts onto the bolt and tighten them against each other. Attach the bolt to the drill and hold the hacksaw blade against the mark.
Run the drill and once you've cut through most of the bolt, twist off the part of the bolt you still need to use.
8. Uncork a Bottle with a Screw
When you need to open a wine bottle but can't find the corkscrew, an ordinary screw with coarse threads can do the job.
Drive the screw into the cork with a vise-grip, a screwdriver, or a drill. It may take a little muscle to yank the cork out but the wine is worth it in the end.
9. Refill Car Oil with a Screwdriver
If you don’t have a funnel you can refill the oil in your car with a screwdriver! #ToolHack https://t.co/BiEqJIGdwF pic.twitter.com/zZlJspdP2n
— moglix (@moglix) January 14, 2016
Need to refill your car engine's oil, but the funnel is nowhere to be found? Well, worry no more because a screwdriver can do the trick.
Remove the oil cap and place the tip of the screwdriver into the oil intake. Smoothly pour the oil towards the intake while hitting the screwdriver's shaft.
Looking for more awesome tool hacks? Watch this video from 5-Minute Crafts and learn more creative ways to use your everyday tools:
Innovative makers intricately built every tool for a particular purpose. But for a more imaginative mind, these tools are not restricted to only one job.
You can turn your everyday tools into something useful when the right tool isn't available. Sure, you can stop working and head out to the nearest hardware store, but it slows down your progress and costs you more money.
All you have to do is let your creative juices flow and think outside the box to change the game. For all you know, you can come up with your own ingenious tool hacks!
Do you know other tool hacks to utilize at home? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!
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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on May 9, 2018, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
Are you seriously recommending that people use a gas powered leaf blower, like the one in your picture, to “dust your room”? Inside your house?
I remember in ‘Caddyshack” when Carl (Bill Murray) cleaned his room with one…Ha!
Use electric leaf blower
Better yet, use a DeWalt battery type leaf blower!
I clean out the interior of my car that way sometimes.
I would believe their referring a garage or similar.
Might depend upon the size of the room.
Use dental floss to cut things (cheese, eggs, etc).
Leaf blowers also can be used to propel small boats
Awesome idea.
You just need one of those REALLLLY long Electrical Leads
A magazine cover that is slick and a piece of tape make a wonderful funnel. No clean up no storing a dirty funnel.
There’s always an empty plastic water or soda bottle around here. I cut the bottom of with my pocket knife and use that. Then toss it when done. Easy cleanup.
Use a piece of cardboard or a sheet of paper and shape it like a funnel, pour oil and you are done, nothing to clean up.
keep up your great work love to read it
AWESOME video! Thank YOU
Try using a small pressure washer to rake the leaves out of the grass or even any where for moving leaves. You kill 2 birds with one stone! remove the leaves and water the grass at the same time! 🙂 Move all the leaves into a pile near trees and let them stand there. It makes excellent top soil for plants and an added bonus for fishermen is it gets full of worms for bait! (Now, THAT one I like! More time on the lake for me.
I’ve also swept the leaves with a jet nozzle on a garden hose.
When a guy told me he used leaf blower to clean out his truck I thought he was crazy. Then I tried it. All the big stuff blows right out the door and there’s less to vacuum up later, if you vacuum at all.
A pair of needle nose pliers works great for holding nails, but I usually take my chances holding them by hand, unless they’re short nails or brads.
Pretty! This was a really wonderful article. Many thanks for
providing these details.
A nail can fly back at your face quite easily,and even take out your eye,trusting a comb could be a little risky.