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Many of the receptacles in my house have yellowed from their original white, some quite markedly: That is not an ivory receptacle. Sixteen years ago, when the house was built, it matched the plate. The receptacle yellowed and the plate stayed white. I would say about a third of the...

My house, like most, is wired with white residential grade receptacles, standard duplex. I notice that some of them are yellowing, which I didn't think was even possible. They still work fine, but it makes me want to replace them. I've seen advice here not to use residential grade devices...

For ages I've been tightening screws on electrical devices with a regular Phillips #2. People here made me aware of combination-tip screwdrivers made specifically for this use, but I just never got around to getting one until last week, when this arrived from Amazon: This is an Ideal model...

I have an idea for a custom tool I want to make out of a regular nut driver, but the process would involve curing some polymer at 275° F for 15 minutes. Would an acetate handle survive that?

A little while ago I bought some very cheap tape measures from Menards and put up pictures here. That was unexpectedly popular, and people wanted to see more, so here we go again with another Menards bottom-end tool purchase. Behold the $4.99 6" locking plier from Tool Shop: Right out of...

I've converted a couple of swinging doors into sliding pocket doors in my house, and I used these sliding pulls where the knobset was: Looking at that, you can see how they're supposed to be fastened; those little nails are supposed to go into the tiny holes in the inner corner of the recess...

Following the earlier thread about Komelon and HF Bauer tape measures, I looked at Menards to see what they had. The Performax line is clearly Komelon, not sure who makes the Masterforce, but I also saw these Tool Shop tapes. $1.29 for the 16' tape, $2.29 for the 25'. So I bought them to take...

I bought a Bauer 12' tape at Harbor Freight, specifically to compare it to a Komelon I had already. They look identical except for color and sticker. I was planning to take them apart and compare the internals, because HF has a lot of knockoff stuff. But I don't think I need to, because both...

Today's minor brainstorm: That is all.

I've always used a socket on oil drain plugs but I understand that many people favor box end wrenches for this. So I thought I'd poll the audience.

Recently I noticed a change in design in exposed work covers designed to hold receptacles. They now look like this, with these little tabs projecting into the receptacle holes: I'd see these and idly wonder about them but didn't give it much thought until I actually needed to buy one today...

I bought an eight-pack of no-name electrical tape at Menards. It is ****. Barely sticks to anything, including itself; starts coming unstuck as soon as you let it go. Obviously I'm not going to make that mistake again, but it got me thinking I should ask you guys if you have a favored brand...

Advertisements for all weather car mats always show some smiling customer rinsing the mat with a hose: "Easy to clean!" I don't know if that's true in other areas, but here in the slush and road salt Midwest, you can scrub one of those mats until your fingers bleed, and when it dries, it's still...

Considering whether I'd be happy with a battery powered chainsaw. Gas powered saws are noisy and dirty, they can be balky to start, and fuel is expensive these days; whereas battery saws are relatively quiet and clean, never have a starting problem, and charging batteries costs me nothing...

For the longest time I've been using a couple of random 14" pipe wrenches that I don't even remember buying. One is a Servess and the other is a 70-year-old (as it turns out) Dunlap of the Stillson design. I bought another even older antique at a garage sale intending to use that too, but...

I bought sets of nut drivers in both SAE and metric sizes this week. I got Channellock for the SAE, but there is no matching metric set, so I ordered the Klein 70200 set of 10. In the Amazon listing the picture appeared to be Vaco branded tools, not Klein: But it's a fuzzy picture and I...

I bought this set of USA-made Channellock nut drivers: Sharp eyes will already have spotted what I'm talking about, but here's a closeup: All the drivers that are pointing downwards in the package have shed what appears to be rust into the packaging. There is no rust evident on the...

I know this kind of design is the classic Stillson: Are the modern designs without the pivoting bracket and leaf springs also considered Stillson wrenches? If not, does the modern design have a name?

I decided to clean up another old pipe wrench, after doing that 100+ year old antique a week or two ago. Why? Because I can, I guess. Anyway, here is the patient: a Dunlap 14" Stillson-type wrench, made in Germany. Not really in bad shape at all and still fully functional, with good sharp...

I was at Harbor Freight today, and was surprised to see this Pittsburgh aluminum pipe wrench marked USA: But the fine print on the tag revealed the truth: I imagine if you pressed them on it, the explanation would be that the imprint is actually "USA STD", meaning SAE as opposed to...