Protect a Shop Vac Filter
Keeping fine dust out of the pleats so filters last.
Pick Up Spilled Screws and Nails With a Bagged Magnet
Drop a strong magnet inside an inside-out plastic bag, sweep up the spilled hardware, then pull the magnet out — the metal drops off the bag clean, no peeling pieces off the magnet.
find lost screws, clean up nails in the driveway, pick up tacks, magnet sweeper
The Problem
Knock over a box of screws or nails and picking them up by hand is slow — and you always miss the small ones that scatter. A bare magnet grabs them fast, but then they're stuck all over the magnet and you have to peel each one off, which is its own chore.
The Technique
- Turn a plastic bag inside out and set a strong magnet inside it, so the bag wraps the magnet.
- Sweep the bagged magnet over the spill. The screws and nails grab onto the bag right over the magnet.
- Holding the bag, pull the magnet up and away. With the magnet gone, the hardware drops off the bag on its own.
- Turn the bag right-side out with the hardware caught inside, ready to pour back into a container.
Pro tip: A strong rare-earth (neodymium) magnet pulls through the bag far better than a weak fridge magnet — the stronger the magnet, the faster you can sweep and the more it grabs in one pass.
Pro tip: The same trick works beyond a clean floor — drag it through grass or gravel to find dropped hardware outside, or through a pile of shop sweepings to pull the metal out of the sawdust.
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