Popular Mechanics buried a few gems in their September 2014 issue: ”Special Do-It-Yourself Issue: How To Make Anything.”

First up. A sweet tip you might have missed if you forgot to study the masthead page vehehehehry carefully…

(You bet I’m going to try this. But, of course, with a hand-powered egg-beater-style drill.)

And then on pages 53-54 there’s an excellent homage by Ted Allen called “The Great American Hardware Store,” with the following lovely bit:

“He dispensed his wares from bins, not blister packs, counted out the exact number you needed, and not a wingnut more, dropped them into little brown paper bags and priced them not with bar codes but pencil stubs. Which he probably sharpened with his teeth.”