Save Your Knuckles: Use a Craftsman 6-Inch Extension with Your 3/8-Inch Drive

Craftsman 6-inch Extension Bar (3/8-inch Drive)

A socket set is nothing but a tool to some people, yet to other people all each shiny pieces-part is another fix for their addiction. Makers of these marvelous tools are quite happy to sell you basic sets; usually the ratchet handle plus a few sockets in metric or English sizes. Only after you’ve started building a tool kit do you realize that basic socket set is the tool guy’s gateway drug. Once you’re gotten into a buying mode, you quickly learn there are all manner of accessories, adapters and other parts that don’t simple make using those shiny toys easier, sometimes they’re just plain indispensable. A case in point is the Craftsman 3/8-inch Drive 6-inch Extension bar.

It looks pretty simple. 

Craftsman 44261 6-in. extension bar, 3/8"

Heck, it is simple: it’s a forged alloy steel rod slightly more than 1/2” in diameter. At one end there’s a hollow bell shape that hides a 3/8-inch female socket where a ratchet or breaker bar fits, at the other end you’ll find a 3/8” cube of solid steel. The male end slots into a socket or other accessory. It’s accessorized with a end spring-loaded ball bearing that helps hold a socket securely, and has a slightly bevel end to guide it into a socket more easily. The nickel-plated extension is a total of six inches long; the total reach is a tad shorter if you take into account the socket end. 

Finish the Job Right with a Finish Sander

Porter-Cable 380 1/4-Sheet Finish Sander

The old palm sander in my shop went tits-up a while back: the fiber backing pad for the sandpaper simply off one day, leaving it essentially useless. I was on the way to my local BigBox store anyway, so I jotted “new finish sander” at the bottom of my list. Meanwhile, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try re-gluing the pad. I gotta admit, the flexible adhesive (E-6000) I used definitely surprised me! By the time was completely dry, though, I'd already bought a replacement, a Porter-Cable 380 1/4-Sheet Finish Sander.

When I eventually got around to trying out the new sander a couple of projects later, I was quite pleased: the 380 is definitely a tight little piece of work. It’s ergonomically superior to sander it replaced (an old Black & Decker) and much quieter. It also has rudimentary dust-collection – not a match for a vacuum system, but better than letting dust fly.

A Workshop's Gentle Persuader: The Rubber Mallet

A Workshop's Gentle Persuader: The Rubber Mallet

Some kind of hammer is most likely the first tool most people accumulate, whether their destiny is to become a carpenter or a hedge fund manager on Wall Street. My first tool, which I still have more than fifty years later, was a wood-handled 16-oz finishing hammer. Now that one has been joined by all sorts of hammers, such as a classic Estwing rock hammer and an 8-pound sledge. All these metal hammers have hard heads, though, so whenever I run into an situation that requires a little finesse I break out my Stanley Rubber Mallet.

The Mallet's Design I’m talking old-school design: the mallet isn’t a 21st-century technological wonder with Bluetooth and iOS 8.0; and it’s not constructed of miracle nanotech materials. It’s simply a cylindrical hunk of black rubber sitting on a simple wood handle made of hickory, like baseball bats once were, and given a coat of lacquer. The head has a little heft, weighing in at 18 ounces, and is made of a tough yet yielding synthetic rubber compound. The flat striking face is 2½ inches in diameter to reduce the chances of marring or denting a delicate-ish surface, but it still lets you smack something hard enough to nudge it in the right direction.

Finish Line Teflon Dry Lubricant: Lubrication Without the Gritty Aftertaste

Finish Line Teflon Plus Spray

Cycling enthusiasts are eternally happy to inform you that bicycles are the most efficient form of transportation, whether or not it's true (it probably is).  A modern bicycle maximizes the mechanical advantages inherent to simple machines, things like levers and pulleys, by reducing overall weight and keeping tolerances tight. Because of those tolerances, regular periodic maintenance and lubrication are some of the essentials to keeping your bicycle in top condition. A proper lubrication regimen means paying careful attention to all moving parts.

Over the years I've used dry lube on almost everything that moves on my bicycle, especially the moving parts of the front and rear derailleurs and the shifters. I also regularly lube shift and brake cables and brake cantilevers with a few drops dripped from a bottle of my favorite, Finish Line Dry Lube. More recently, I've expanded my lubricant arsenal to include aerosol cans of Finish Line Teflon Plus Spray. Except for added propellants, this formula is identical to what's in the original drip bottle. I picked up on this stuff after the household’s aging Lemond road bike developed shifter problems and the mechanic at the local bike shop chided me for not lubing the shifter housings, those integral shifter/brake levers that are the standard on road bikes. Finish Line's aerosol can comes with a skinny red straw familiar to fans of WD-40. That straw gives me pinpoint precision needed to squirt lifesaving lube deep within the shifter housings before a ride. I also use the aerosol sans straw for a wide-angle shot at the cogset after washing the bikes.

Frost-Proof Faucets

A Lot Cheaper than a Frozen Pipe!

One of water's most important physical properties is surprisingly unusual: unlike most other substances, when water freezes it expands instead of contracts. Life scientists tell us that this unusual property is absolutely essential to life as we know it; without this difference Earth's oceans would be little more than somewhat salty frozen treats. Your plumber may not admit it, but this property is also essential to the payments on his yacht. If a pipe around your house has ever frozen and burst, you know what the guy with the plumber's crack means. It ain't a pretty sight (you decide which "it" I mean).

Frozen Faucets are a Hassle

An outdoor faucet, also known as a hose bib or sillcock, is likely to be the weakest link in your plumbing when the temperature drops too far below freezing. It’s not just exposed to frigid air, it's also close to the ground where the temperature is lowest. Houses that don’t have hose shutoffs with drains for the outdoor faucets (very common for houses on slabs) are often in danger of freezing along that run of pipe. A wise preemptive step for a homeowner is to install a frost-proof hydrant. With their long valves, even a faucet that must be left operating for outdoor water supply during the coldest days of winter remains protected from freezing. That’s because, when the faucet is turned off, all the water stays within the house instead of in a pipe that's out and exposed to the cold.

Pipe Heaters

Prevent Frozen Waterfalls on Those Cold Winter Nights with a Wrap-On Pipe Heating Cable

Houstonians, where I grew up folks pretty much rejoiced if a January overnight low only dropped to 20° Fahrenheit, so your "nasty cold snaps" seem laughably warm to me. I kid you not, in seven years I've never worn my second-warmest coat here, much less my warmest - and the best gloves are still somewhere in storage, too. However, I realize that not only are the human beings around here unable to endure sub-freezing temperature, local houses haven't been designed for such temperatures either. So we are prepared: for example, we bought some of those 99¢ foam covers for our outdoor faucets and picked up some foam pipe wraps.

The Problem: Exposed Pipes

One inexplicable local plumbing practice - don't me why, given Houston has a hard freeze every few years - is to pipe to near the edge of the slab with PVC, then finish bringing water to the house through an exposed copper supply pipe. Yep, naked metal pipe outside the house; a veritable full-employment plan for local plumbers if there ever was one. I've outsmarted them, though, because I own a Wrap-On Pipe Heating Cable I'd bought several years ago for our Great (formerly) White Elephant on the Edge of the Prairie. No problems: even after several nights of low-twenties temperatures, we'll be fine -- though our plants probably won't.

San Angelo Bar

They Won't Sell You a Beer at This San Angelo Bar!

Although their name sounds more like somewhere you might catch a Los Lonely Boys¹ gig of a Saturday Night, San Angelo bars are pretty much as far from beer halls as you can imagine. Sometimes called a "rock bar" (also a venue where you might see Los Lonely Boys play, I guess), a San Angelo bar is essentially a seventeen-pound steel pencil. You can't buy a drink at one and you most likely won't hear any music, but when it comes to prying out a rock or busting through a hard streak when you're digging a post hole, you sure can't beat one.

Post holes are exactly why I have one - digging new holes and busting the cement out of old ones. I’m talking situations like a recent fence repair, courtesy of a 60-mph wind and a string of rotten, 20-year-old posts…. not to mention 95-degree heat.

Mine is the classic San Angelo bar design manufactured by Ludell Tool. A drop-forged steel bar with a one-inch hexagonal cross-section, it's seventy inches long and came painted with dark green enamel (newer bars are black). One end is pointed, as if the bar had been plugged into a super-sized (and super-tough) pencil sharpener. The opposite end is flattened into a dull chisel point 2½" wide. All told, it weighs seventeen pounds. Because it’s long and solid, a San Angelo bar is perfect for prying loose a heavy rock you encounter when digging. The pointy end can pierce dense, hard layers of soil, which is especially useful for digging post holes. Seventeen pounds of hardened steel launched two or three feet onto that point does a fine job on tough soil layers: a former neighbor once punched through what he thought was rock with his rock bar only to realize he'd poked a hole in the top of his septic tank!

Your Legs and Back Will Say "Thanks!" for Some Anti-Fatigue Mats

The older you get, the more obvious it becomes that no other floor is quite so unforgiving as a bare concrete slab. Even cheap vinyl tile has a little give. Unfortunately, most workshops are found in basements or garages, with floors of - you guessed it - bare concrete. If you find yourself standing for hours on end on hard flooring at work or in your hobby space, then your back, knees and hips will probably start aching about the time you hit your mid-fifties. You owe it to your skeleton to find some sort of cushioning to put underfoot.

If your joints and back are achy after a day in your workshop, an anti-fatigue mat may be just what the doctor (or chiropractor) ordered. You can create shop-built wooden platforms for stations like your drill press or band saw or buy commercial versions. A key advantage of the commercial mats is that many have beveled edges to reduce tripping hazards and to make it easier to roll equipment across them. On the other hand, they are sometimes fairly expensive.

Equipment Essentals for Field Geology

Many geologists chose the field because they enjoy being outdoors in quiet places (like the roadcut along I-70 west of Denver?), but day after day - or week after week - spent climbing limestone cliffs and bushwhacking through forests means that your favorite geologist is going to need some gear. That's beyond the essential tools of the trade, but I'll get there, too.

What to Wear: Let's Start at the Ground

Field geologists don't spend their days sitting around: they spend most days on their feet, often nowhere near a trail. Solid hiking boots are an absolute essential: sneakers just won't cut it. Choose boots that go over the ankle for the extra support and have tough, deep-lug soles for the added traction. This is one item to splurge on if possible, because your hiking boots will be a long-term commitment and they absolutely must be comfortable.

Universal Forest 3 Step Stair Stringer

You Don't Botch Your Notches with Pre-Cut Stair Stringers

The 1895 farm house we owned in Illinois had porches galore: most houses don't have that many doors, let alone exterior doors. More than a century of benign (and occasionally malignant) neglect took its toll on those porches, though, just in time for yours truly to be called on to repair them. The porch we used most - the one at the kitchen door - was in such bad condition it looked like a lawsuit in waiting, so our second year in the house I tackled it head-on. It wasn't the toughest project of the summer, but it also wasn't the easiest. The ledger by which the porch attached to the house remained sound, but that was it. Everything else was toast: frame, deck, railings and stairs. And when I peeled off the old stair treads, I found those gorgeous old cedar stringers were in no condition to be re-used. Oh, dear...

CRL Red Devil Window Zipper

Take This, Window-Painting Idiots!

Repeat after me, everyone "There is a special spot in Hell for anyone who paints a windows shut." I’m specifically envisioning the people who used to own my house burning... Oh, sure, I know it’s almost impossible to paint a window, either the inside or the outside, without painting it shut. In other words, that special place in Hell should be reserved for whoever paints a window and then doesn’t bother to unseal it (including my previous owners, of course).

If you've ever lived in an older house or apartment and learned you couldn’t open windows that had been sealed with a layer or six of old paint, don't be concerned because there’s an easy solution: the CRL (Red Devil) Window Zipper. Usually you’re reduced to tapping the all-purpose putty knife into the space surrounding the frame, but the Window Zipper is specially designed for this job and this job alone.

Craftsman Air Tool Oiler 16309

Oil Air Tools the Smart, and a Little Lazy Way

The owner's manual of every air tool includes instructions on lubrication; usually something like

"place a few drops of oil into the air inlet every day" for most tools (paint sprayers excluded); maybe one or two drops if it's a grinder. So you're sure to get the point, most manufacturers include a two-ounce bottle of oil along with their nail guns, air hammers, and orbital sanders. For continuous-use tools, though, like grinders and sanders, manufacturers recommend that using in-line oilers. The moisture in compressed air has a tendency to rust the bearings and vanes of these tools, making them prone to problems, even with in-line filters.

That's why every time I hook up an air tool to my compressor - especially here on the humid Gulf Coast - there's a Craftsman 16309 Air Tool Oiler in the line; even if it's a nailer instead of a grinder.

Basin Wrenches

Before You Change that Next Faucet, Pick up a Basin Wrench

Unless you've done something more than the simplest of plumbing jobs, you probably still grumble about how much a plumber's time is worth, at least according to their bills. If, however, your "vast" experience goes beyond installing a new valve or flapper in your toilet tank or replacing a leaky faucet washer, you may know better. Once you get beyond the jobs you can complete standing up, you start to appreciate the skill of trained plumbers; perhaps even more so a trained plumber's collection of tools.

Minwax High Performance Wood Hardener

Get Your Wood Hard with Minwax

Our fourth house was our oldest yet, older than the previous one by something like ninety years. I'm here to say that there is joy to life in a Victorian-era farmhouse more than a hundred years old, especially architectural details never seen in the stapled-together tract houses we of the 99% live in. Ours had plaster medallions, leaded-glass windows, plinth blocks on the moldings everywhere in the house, and ceiling lights whose every socket had its own switch (that no one shorter than 5'-10" could reach without a ladder) .

Turret with (repaired) window complex. 

Owning old houses also has its woes. For one, there's the shortage of plumb walls and square corners - though I once lived in a ranch house built in the 1980s that wasn't all that square, either. Second is having to find visit the local architectural salvage yard every weekend for replacing things they don't sell at Home Depot. Then there's dry rot. Pure, simple, dry rot, the natural enemy of wood that's exposed to moisture for a century or so. Dry rot is surely the bane of old houses' existence.

An eighty-MPH wind gust blew in one of the windows in our turret. More accurately, it blew in a window complex of perhaps a dozen panes, half curved. Broken glass was everywhere, but for the most part, the frame was intact, with only a few cracks I could clamp and glue plus a few rotted spots. The rotted spots troubled me, because re-glazing windows in a rickety frame is courting disaster. How was I going to replace a few spongy muntins in a frame four feet wide and four feet high without replacing the whole works?

Power Tools Every Homeowner Should Have

Unless they have servants who do the work for them, every homeowner (and many renters) needs to be be prepared for routine home maintenance and repairs. That includes you women, by the way. Here are what this longtime DIYer finds to be essential power tools to make those jobs go easier.

Start With a Cordless Drill-Driver

A good cordless drill belongs in every home toobox, which is why it's often the first power tool people buy. When choosing a cordless drill, look for one that's well-balanced and powerful enough for ordinary tasks, while still light enough that you can carry it around without wearing out your arm.

Your Guide to Wrenches for the Workshop

No matter whether your're a mechanic or a woodworker, there's no way your workshop could possibly be complete without assorted wrenches. The obvious problem is that there are boatloads of different wrenches out there for you to choose from. Which of them are a necessity, which would be nice to own, and which will end up being just another dust-catcher? The answer is, pretty much "It depends." Here, however are a few guidelines that might help you decide on how to begin stocking your toolbox.

Wagner HT-1000 Heat Gun

It's the Last Stripper I'll Ever Pay For!

House paint serves more than decorative functions, it's also the homeowner's front-line defender against moisture. That's why many older houses (like our 1895 Queen Anne) are covered in multiple layers of the stuff. When I had to do some window window repair on the dignified old gal, I remembered once more why the owners of historic houses speak "previous owner" as a profanity. Because of a few rotten spots in the window frames we cleaned everything down to bare wood before proceeding. Yep, more than a century's worth of paint; oil-based or latex; leaded or lead-free; green, white, red, brown, tan... they overmatched every chemical stripper we could find. That was before I wandered into the little hardware store on the corner and found a Wagner HT1000 Heat Gun. I may never buy a paint stripper again.

Choosing Measurement Tools

If You're Going to Measure Something, Measure it Right

You probably don't pay them much mind, but measurement tools are critical to completing a project well. A well-equipped workshop will have a variety of these tools, no matter whether your medium is metal or wood or you're a general all-around Mr. (or Ms.) FixIt. The range of available devices is impressive, but here are some basics.

Start with a Tape Measure The most basic measuring device for the DIYer is a tape measure. They come in lengths from a pocket- or purse-sized six-footer up to a hefty 25-foot professional tape. When shopping, look for a tape that locks in place and has a sturdy blade that won't fold over from its own weight after being extended just a few feet.

Remove Rust from Tools with Ordinary Vinegar

Unless you keep all your tools in a humidity- and temperature-controlled environment or keep them protected with a light coating of oil at all times, you're likely to find an occasional rust spot on your babies. If you have kids who borrow your tools to fix bikes or build treehouses, it's even more likely. And finally, if you have a habit of collecting tools from along the roadside while walking or cycling (my hobby, if you must know) then you've seen enough rust to coat the Brooklyn Bridge.

Did you know you can remove that rust with a common household chemical, one that you probably have sitting in the kitchen right now? Yep - vinegar isn't just good for salad dressing, pickles and cleaning the coffee pot, it also removes rust. No kidding: and it's easy!

Your Guide to Hammers

Whether you need to hang a picture in the living room or drive stakes for a badminton net in the back yard, you'll need a hammer of some kind. It's a safe bet that every toolkit, even the most basic, includes a hammer. Most of them include only one hammer, which is typically a claw hammer that both drives and pulls nails. When your set of tools starts to grow, however, you're going to find a wide variety of hammers in the stores, with different features that make them superior than that "all-purpose" model when it comes to certain tasks.

Homemade Overhead Storage for Your Garage

When You Can't Fit the Car in the Garage Anymore

The neighborhood where we live now is decidedly suburban, without many sidewalks. Worse, in about every block you'll find that at least one house where a car is parked across the sidewalk, even though the house has a two or even three-car garage. Why? Well, people's stuff just plain takes over their garages, to the point that they can no longer fit a car in there.

If that's your problem, you might fork over hundreds of bucks to buy shelving systems and cabinets from some BigBox store. If you're handy, you might build your own shelves. But what do you do with the biggest stuff? Articles about garage organization tend to concentrate on storage along the walls, but often ignore the empty space near the ceiling. With just a few bucks' worth of materials you probably have lying around, you can build a ceiling rack for big stuff that doesn't fit on the wall shelves. At one house, I built one of these racks to hold full sheets of plywood; my current one is a little smaller.

Original Bucket Boss

Lightweight Tool Transport: the Bucket Boss System

The Original Bucket Boss is one of those inventions that just about every DIYer looks at ans mutters, "Why didn't I think of that?" If you're not familiar with 'em, a Bucket Boss is a canvas tool transport/storage system that fits into a five-gallon plastic bucket. They're sort of open, cylindrical sleeves that fit inside the bucket plus flaps that drape over the outside. They're made entirely of heavy weight, water-resistant canvas.

Craftsman Wrench Holders

Combination Wrench Organization in a Small Package

Question: What do you give the man who has everything?
Answer: Something to keep it in.

That’s an excellent idea, especially when you think of tools in general and hand tools in specific. Case in point might be one of those mechanic’s tool set with a thousand wrenches, every one of which immediately migrates to the bottom of the tool chest. And the one you want is always lurking beneath all the others. It's easy to avoid that syndrome with a Craftsman Wrench Holder, one more cunningly crafted piece of plastic (and therefore recyclable, too).

Akro-Mils Keep Boxes

I Think I'll Keep These Boxes 

There's somebody around this house who's, let's just say, "acquisitive." Over a couple of decades, that somebody's collected references and resources for all sorts of activities and lessons. Happily, that someone is pretty well-organized, and all these years has kept the stuff in collections. Some collections are pretty extensive, most are downright eclectic. For instance, who do you know who has a collection of snakeskins or an owl wing? Most collections are kept in handy containers, an Akro-Mils design called Keep Boxes.

Craftsman Socket Racks

Finding that Socket Gets Easier When They're Organized on Craftsman Racks

If your toolbox contains a screwdriver or two, pliers, a hammer and roll of duct tape; organizing "all" that stuff probably isn't much of a problem. Me, I'm nearer the opposite end of the spectrum: I've got drawers filled with sockets in my tool chest in ¼", ⅜", and ½" drive; both SAE and metric units; six and twelve-point and regular vs. deep-well. I do still have the duct tape, though. Hunting for a specific socket out of the dozens in those drawers would be more frustrating if I didn't have a lot of them organized on several Craftsman Socket Racks. I've got separate racks for ⅜" drive metric and SAE sets, separated by standard and deep-well. It makes life that much easier.

Dust-Off Compressed Air Duster

"Air" - Includes List of Ingredients

Everyone calls this stuff "canned air," but that's not what it is. Sure it's canned, but it isn't air. Air, which is what we breathe, is a natural gas whose composition falls within a narrow range, at least on Earth. You can see he average composition at the bottom of the page.

A can of this stuff is actually filled with a substance called difluoroethane, which is an inert gas in the fluorocarbon family. Fluorocarbons are far more compressible than plain air, which is whhh they're often used as propellants and dusters instead of little pieces of the atmosphere.

Master Magnetics Mini Magnet Sweeper

A Pickup Line for Every Workshop

My lawyer tells me that no job is finished until the paperwork is done; but for people with shop projects, the job isn't finished until cleanup is complete. That includes putting away your tools and picking up dropped fasteners and scraps before you sweep. If you’re like me, you leave nails and screws spread around the shop, because it’s easier to pull a replacement from the apron than it is to crawl after dropped ones. Cleanup is when you rescue the leftovers, and what better way than to use a magnet? You won’t even have to bend over when you spot another nail!

Gutter Getter Scoop

Gutters Full of Goop? Get a Gutter Getter

As much as we appreciate the trees around our house, sometimes I hate their beringed guts. One such time is the day I have to cleaning piles of leaves and twigs out of our gutters. Our house has a hip roof and a detached garage with a porte cochère; and by my conservative estimate there are about four million linear feet of gutter collecting leaves from a pair of huge (and beautiful) live oaks in the open space behind us. The previous owners (ptui!) apparently never cleaned the gutters, which was made obvious by the water pouring over the rims with out first big rain (two inches, four days after the move-in).

Magnogrip Magnetic Tool Wristband

Get a Grip on the Small Parts: Get a MagnoGrip

Whether you’re putting together that table from Ikea, putting up curtains or performing a tune-up on your 1987 IROC-Z, at some point you're sure to find yourself crawling around looking for a dropped screw or other part. Pockets and aprons don't work – how many times have you drawn blood digging through pocket full of nails? And don't even mention trying to find the correct screw when there are four different sizes. It’s times like that we all wish we had three hands, like Zaphod Beeblebrox.

Wooster 11 in. Plastic Tray Liner

Cleanup After Finish Jobs is a Joy with Wooster Paint Tray Liners (Well, Almost)


The world of do-it-yourselfers separates into two schools: some finish and hate to build, the rest build and hate to finish. I'm a member of school number 2: I will gladly make sawdust all day long, but when it comes time for finishing, I’m perfectly happy to leave it to someone else. Makes no difference whether it's paint, varnish, stain, shellac. Me no likey. On the other hand, my wife belongs to school one, the finishers. We have a match made in Heaven.


Every once in while, I still get stuck wielding brush or roller. When that happens, I reach for a paint tray and add in a Wooster Tray Liner. If there’s anything thing I hate more than finishing, it’s cleaning up afterwards; paint tray liners cut that chore down to size.

Stanley 28-100 Mini Scraper

Every Home Needs a Mini-Scraper or Two

Unless you're a one-percenter who has white glove-clad staff dogging your every footstep, you'll leave a mess behind every so often. Some of them will be sticky, and Murphy's Lay says a few will certainly dry before being cleaned up, which means scraping them off. You don't have maids to do the dirty work, so who you gonna call? You call your Stanley 28-100 Mini Scraper.