Tap of a Nail Keeps Hanging Clothes Off the Floor

Many closet hanger rods are just plain wooden rods that rest onthe curved ends of special mounting brackets. One problem is thatthe ends of the rods are exposed and this makes it easy for thehangers to just slide off the end of the rod and dump your clothes onthe floor. An easy solution might be to drive a nail halfway intothe side of the rod a half-inch from the end. The head of the nailsticks up and keeps the hangers from sliding off.

Dear Al: I have had a hard time getting the vacuum cleanerunderneath my workbench to suck up the sawdust and other debris thatcollects there. My solution to this problem was to use my oldhairdryer to blow it out from under the bench where I can get to it.After that, I can go around the shop and vacuum up everything on thefloor.

A SUPER HINT: When replacing panes in wooden window frames, it'simportant to use a sealer before applying your glazing compound. Itwill keep the wood from drawing the moisture from the glazing,causing it to shrink and pull away from the glass.

Dear Al: My friend always pours boiling water down her kitchensink drain to keep it running smoothly. It works for her so I triedit. I use boiling vinegar, though. It works too and I feel it mightbe doing a better job since the vinegar will help dissolve some ofthe mineral deposits that tend to build up in the pipes in my city.It makes sense to me and, since I've had no problems with my drainbacking up, I must be doing something right.

Q. I am going to install new glazed ceramic tiles just below thecoping around the swimming pool. All that I've seen are sold with anet backing that holds the tiles together as a group. How do I peelthis off to set the tiles?

A. You don't. This backing allows you to set larger areas allat once with the proper spacing already taken care of. If a tileadhesive is used, you just come back and add the grout between tilesafter the adhesive sets up.

Dear Al: I had to drill through a piece of pipe and it wasreally hard to pin it down to do the job. It kept rolling out fromunder the drill and it was getting marked up pretty bad. I finallydecided to hold it in my vise but that was hard at first too. Iwrapped an old leather belt around the pipe and then put the ends ofthe belt into the vise to hold it down tightly. This worked greatand it didn't damage the pipe any more.