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" Split PreventionDivide And ConquerBubble ProofRoughed Up Using Yesterday&amp;#039;s News Admit it. Recycling makes perfect sense. Materials like plastic, cardboard and metal all get used again, rather than end up in a landfill. However, if you&amp;#039;re tying up bundles of old newspapers for the trash collector, you may be missing another way to recycle. When it comes time to wash the windows, don&amp;#039;t use paper towels. Try old newspaper along with your window cleaner. It does a great job, and you don&amp;#039;t end up with a garbage bag full of expensive wet toweling afterward. TOM KLENCK Split Prevention It happens to everyone who&amp;#039;s ever driven a nail into wood. You position the nail just a bit too close to the end, take one blow with your hammer and--crack! The wood splits, not only creating a sloppy-looking scar, but making the nail all but ineffective. You could bore pilot holes to prevent potential splits, or you could try what most pros do. Before driving the nail, flip it over and blunt its point with your hammer. With a flatter tip, the nail is more likely to crush the wood fibers and force them ahead. A sharp, pointy tip spreads the fibers apart--just like a splitting wedge. STEVE WILLSON Divide And Conquer It&amp;#039;s easy to rip a 12-in.-wide board down the middle--just mark the center at 6 in. But, what happens when the piece is, let&amp;#039;s say, 11-11/16 in. wide? You&amp;#039;re quick with fractions, right? Half of 11/16 is 11/32, added to half of 11, that&amp;#039;s 5-1/2, is uh... Wait, there must be a better way--and there is. Instead of measuring the width of the piece you&amp;#039;d like to divide in half, simply hook your tape measure to one edge and angle it so any dimension easily divisible by 2 aligns with the opposite edge. In the case of our 11-11/16-in. piece, angle the tape so the 12-in. mark coincides with the edge. Then, make a line at the 6-in. mark to divide the board at its precise center. This method isn&amp;#039;t only for dividing by 2. It works just as well for dividing a space into any number of equal parts. For example: If you&amp;#039;d like three equal widths of our 11-11/16-in. piece, angle the tape to 12 in., and mark your board at 4 and 8 in. Want five spaces? Pull the tape to 15 in. and place marks at 3-in. increments. Imagine trying to work out five divisions of 11-11/16 in. the other way. TOM KLENCK Bubble Proof After you&amp;#039;ve been around wood for a while, it gets easier to tell one species from another and you soon know them all. The visual clues, such as color and grain, are obvious signatures that are hard to miss. But, sometimes even the pros can be fooled. Take red oak and white oak, for instance. At a glance, they look pretty similar, although white oak promises a more showy grain fleck and is usually priced accordingly. So how can you tell the difference? Take a short, straight-grained length, stick one end in water and blow through the other like a straw. If you see bubbles, you&amp;#039;ve got red oak. TOM KLENCK Roughed Up If you bend nails no matter how you try to drive them, your technique may need work. Or, it may be your hammer. Before you buy a new one, though, try this. Take some 60-grit sandpaper and roughen the striking surface. The added grip may be just enough to help you drive nails like a pro. STEVE WILLSON Also, swing from the wrist, not the elbow. KEN JURAN &amp;amp;gt;Have any good tips, quick fixes or tricks of the trade that you&amp;#039;d like to share? Send them to: It Worked For Me, c/o POPULAR MECHANICS, 810 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10019. Or e-mail us at pmtips@hearst.com. If we publish your idea we&amp;#039;ll send you a POPULAR MECHANICS T-shirt. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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