DIY

I bought a TV wall mount, and then when I went to set it up, I couldn’t unfold it to attach it. It took some time but I figured out what to do. Here’s what to do when your TV wall mount won’t unfold.

TV wall mounts have to be very tight to support the mass of a TV, and without the mass of a TV on them, they can be difficult to unfold. You may have to get creative to reach the adjustment screws, and try turning them the opposite way you think. If you just can’t reach the screws, a little bit of disassembly may be necessary to get to them, but this isn’t terribly difficult to do.

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You can make a surprisingly good digital TV antenna out of a piece of unused coax cable. While not suitable for pulling in distant signals, inside a metro area, this homemade antenna you can make in 15 minutes pulls in dozens of HDTV channels.

You can make a simple TV antenna by stripping off the last six inches of insulation off a standard coax TV cable, folding back the shielding, and leaving six inches of bare copper wire. Where I live, 10 miles from the St. Louis city limit, this simple antenna pulls in 40 channels. If you live outside a major city, you’re better off with a Gray-Hoverman design.

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Which is better, Liquid Nails or wood glue? It depends on what you need to stick together. And there are times when Liquid Nails is more convenient, but wood glue will give a stronger bond, long-term. So let’s look at Liquid Nails vs wood glue.

Construction adhesives like Liquid Nails give a strong bond with quick grab, and they work well on dissimilar surfaces. But for some applications, wood glue is better, especially if you use a premium wood glue.

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If you’d asked the question a couple of decades ago, the answer probably would have been no. But thanks to advances in paint, these days you can paint vinyl siding. Not only that, there sometimes are compelling reasons to do so.

The point of vinyl siding was for it to be maintenance free over the course of its life. But vinyl siding has a usable life of 25-30 years, so if your vinyl siding is reaching that point, painting it is a way to extend that usable life.

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Super glue is permanent, right? Actually it’s not, and it’s not necessarily as strong as we think it is either. In some cases, super glue is extremely strong and worthy of its name. But sometimes it’s a pushover, and that can be a good thing. That means you can get rid of it when you need to. Here’s how to remove super glue.

Super glue dissolves readily in acetone, or you can use specialty debonders sold in hobby shops, or use a couple of my other tricks to break its bond. Water will not help, as moisture accelerates its bond.

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I had an old Formica backsplash, original to my house. It was still in good condition, but I’m not sure it looked good in 1965, let alone now. I wanted to replace it with tile but didn’t relish the $700 expense. What if I could lay tile right over Formica or other laminates? Here’s how to tile over Formica backsplash.

Tile mastic doesn’t stick well to Formica and other laminates, and the manufacturers won’t warranty it if you try. The most cost-effective solution in terms of time and money is a peel-and-stick product. As long as your existing backsplash is in good condition, it’s a good candidate for this.

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WD-40 has a number of uses around the house. It’s been a longtime tinkerer’s favorite for a reason. But it may also be one of the most frequently misused household chemicals. So here’s what WD-40 is used for, and best not used for.

WD-40’s main uses are protecting metals from water, as a penetrating oil to loosen stuck parts, and even as a cleaner. It is not, however, a very effective general purpose lubricant.

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If you’re hanging something heavy like a cabinet or a shelf and want it to stay on the wall, you need to attach it to a wall stud. Otherwise it’s liable to pull out, damaging your drywall in the process, and possibly causing other damage too. So here’s how to find a stud in the wall.

The most common method is to use a tool, which costs around $20. But even without a tool, with a little practice you can use visual or audio clues to find a stud in the wall.

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As a landlord, one common thing I run into when rehabbing a house is questionable pantries. You don’ t have to use expensive wood for pantry shelves, but if you use the wrong lumber, or the wrong design, you can end up with a shelf crashing down. And that’s no good.

You can use nominal one-inch pine boards for pantry shelves, or 1/2 inch plywood, as long as you don’t make it excessively long. Particle board and OSB are not ideal, and reinforcement on all four sides is absolutely necessary with those. Pantry shelves need to be fairly strong, as canned goods can be fairly heavy. Having lots of pantry storage so you can take advantage of sales is one of the best reasons to have a house. So you want to make sure the pantry is put together pretty well. Read more

Permanent means permanent, right? Not necessarily. It’s difficult to remove permanent marker from plastic, but not impossible. Here are several ways to get permanent marker off plastic.

The favorite trick is coloring over it with a dry erase marker, then erasing it. But if this doesn’t work, or you don’t have a dry erase marker, there are other solvents and cleaners that can also work. On cloth, permanent marker really is permanent, or nearly so, since it can soak into the surface. On plastic it can’t, so permanent marker is more like semi-permanent on plastic.

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