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" Plastic Bag Covers Paint TrayGlue ApplicatorHacksaw Blade CoverHelping Hands   Long-Distance Level Reading changes in landscape elevation by eye alone can be very misleading. Even professionals with years of experience are frequently fooled by gentle slopes that look gradual but turn out to be much steeper. If you&amp;#039;re dealing with a small area--for example, something that&amp;#039;s 15 or 20 ft. in diameter--a 16-ft.-long straight board with a 4-ft. level on its top edge will do the trick. But for changes over a greater distance you&amp;#039;ll need something else. Transits and builder&amp;#039;s levels are ideal. They&amp;#039;re easy to use and very accurate. They also can cost several hundred dollars each. If you don&amp;#039;t have one of these tools, or if you don&amp;#039;t want to spend that kind of money for something you&amp;#039;ll rarely use, try clamping a 4-ft. level--in a level position--onto a stepladder and sighting down the top of it. Have a helper take a board to the distant spot that you want to measure and hold it in a vertical position. Sight down the level and have your helper mark where the top edge of the level intersects the board. The difference between the distance from the ground to this mark and from the ground to the top of the level tells you the change in elevation between the two points. This technique can yield accuracy as fine as 1 in. over 50 ft. STEVE WILLSON   Plastic Bag Covers Paint Tray It&amp;#039;s good to recycle plastic bags from groceries or other shopping excursions, but save a few for painting projects. One of the best uses for these bags is as a paint-tray liner. Slip the bag over the tray&amp;#039;s well. Fill up the tray and paint as you would normally. When you&amp;#039;re done, slip the bag off the tray and dispose of it. Wrap the roller cover and brushes in other bags if you are going to use them again the next day. You also can place a bag over a paint can when you hammer down the lid. The bag keeps the paint from splattering as the lid forces any remaining paint out of the can&amp;#039;s rim. ROY BERENDSOHN  Glue Applicator The secret to a successful gluing operation is preparation. Once all the pieces have been dry fit and the clamps are on hand, you&amp;#039;re ready to go--almost. Before you squeeze that plastic glue bottle, take a moment to figure out how you&amp;#039;ll spread the glue before it starts to set. For glue to do its job it has to entirely cover the mating surfaces. That&amp;#039;s easy if the joint is a simple butt joint. But getting the glue into a dowel hole or a deep mortise requires a specialized tool. Fortunately, you&amp;#039;ll find the ideal glue applicators at your local grocery store--common bamboo skewers. Not only are these just the right size to handle everything from tight dovetails to long spline joints, you also can snip the used end and use it again for the next job. Once you have a tin can of skewers on hand, you&amp;#039;ll find they&amp;#039;re great for cleaning out tight crevices and holes as well. TOM KLENCK  Hacksaw Blade Cover Sliding binder bars are those small plastic clips that hold together written reports. They are sold in two forms, by themselves and with the plastic report covers. Usually, they are thrown away when the report is thrown out. But it&amp;#039;s better to save them. A perfect use for these bars is to slip them over the cutting edge of hacksaw blades. These bars do a great job of protecting the blades. They keep the blades sharp, and by keeping the teeth safely covered, you won&amp;#039;t skin your knuckles as you rummage through your toolbox. ROY BERENDSOHN  Helping Hands Most of us end up doing a lot of work around the house by ourselves. Everybody else is busy, off doing other things. At least that&amp;#039;s what they tell us. And most of the time this is okay. Working by yourself can be a great way to relax. But sometimes another pair of hands, even for a couple of minutes, can make a job much easier. In a pinch, support nails can get you out of just about any jam. On a long board, for example, you can partially drive one nail under each end and free up both your hands for finish nailing. Just drive the nails in spots that will be hidden or easily repaired later. For smaller pieces, masking tape works wonders. It&amp;#039;s stronger than you might think and it&amp;#039;s easy to remove. And if you have the room and the spot to use clamps, these are the best temporary hands of all. STEVE WILLSON "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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