Family Handyman September 2022

When I would arrive at the farm, my cousins would say “the city kid is here,” even though I was as suburban as a kid could be. As preteens, my pals and I played football on manicured lawns and slurped Orange Julius at the mall. But to my cousins on the family dairy farm in northern Wisconsin, I was all skyscrapers and polished shoes. I loved those day trips. Within minutes of stepping out of my dad’s Ford Country Squire station wagon, I’d be riding a pony, hunting squirrels in the woods with a .22 or playing hide-and-seek in the cornfield. By the time I was 14, summer trips to the farm became work outings, and they lasted for days. Baling hay and stacking it in the barn, milking the cows,…

facebook.com/thefamilyhandyman pinterest.com/family_handyman youtube.com/thefamilyhandyman instagram.com/familyhandyman tiktok.com/@familyhandyman WE LOVE YOUR PROJECTS! Inspiration is a two-way street. We learn a lot from your projects and want to share a few recent submissions we love. WALKING STICKS TO AID AND INSPIRE “My hobby for the past 35 years has been fashioning hiking/walking sticks and canes/shillelaghs from downed trees or branches, mostly oak or beech,” says Dennis Daulton. “My father was a strong man who depended on the use of a cane, which may be a stigma to some. When I was looking for a hobby, I wanted one that would make others feel better about themselves.” And that’s how Daulton began his craft. He has even built sticks for Boston Celtics legend Bob Cousy, who took one to the White House when he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Daulton gives his walking…

Before you bust out the roller to quickly paint large swaths of wall, you need to carefully and accurately “cut in” around trim. Paintbrushes often feel cumber-some for this job if the brush is too wide or the handle too long. The Purdy XL Cub is a compact edging and cut-in brush. It has angled 2-or 2-1/2-in.-wide nylon and polyester bristles, which work well for all paints and stains. The compact size is the real draw—at just over 8 in. long, it feels like an extension of your hand. I put the XL Cub to work on a couple of rooms in my house to see how it performed. The brush worked as advertised on drywall. The bristles were easy to control and held plenty of paint for the finicky cut-in…

Why a steam mop? Steam easily breaks down dirt from hard floors and kills bacteria without chemicals. The Bissell PowerFresh Deluxe 1806 is easy to set up and user-friendly. It comes with both a microfiber soft pad and an abrasive pad, both machine washable, as well as two fragrance discs. To use the mop, just add water to the tank, plug it in and turn it on. The fragrance discs slip into the compartment above the mop head. You can use a whole disc, a half or none. I used this mop on tile and hardwood floors, sweeping first. The Bissell did everything I hoped it would do, even grabbing all the pet hair the broom didn’t get. A detachable spot-cleaning brush with tough bristles worked really well on the most…

Most garden hoses are heavy and a hassle to store. This expandable hose from TheFitLife collapses when drained, so it is compact, lightweight and easy to store. It has a triple-layer latex inner hose, wrapped in a woven elastic fabric made to expand to three times its drained size when in use. With a built-in shutoff valve at the end, heavy-duty brass fittings connect the hose to the water supply and an included eight-setting spray nozzle. The 25-ft. version measures 28 ft. when full and is just under 9 ft. when drained, so it easily coils up into a small garden pot. Because expandable hoses require water pressure to expand, they don’t expand without an attachment and might not work well with a high-flow sprinkler or high-flow nozzle. Also, when you turn…

If you need a random orbital sander only occasionally and don’t want to spend a fortune, the Ryobi RS290G should be a good fit for you. It is comfortable, nicely made and performs well. I tested this sander on hardwoods and plywood with hardwood veneer. I worked through different grits to see if the sander would effectively remove scratches from the previous grit. I also looked for ease of handling—but what does that mean? Some random orbital sanders pull your hand around. I want a “floating” feel so I can direct the sander instead of forcing it, which leaves deeper scratches. As is true with any random orbital sander, I had to work a bit to find the sweet spot where it floats. Once I did, its operation was smooth and…