Although it is less common to lock yourself out of your car with electronic locks and ignition these days, it happens often enough that I keep a spare key hidden in our vehicles. Grant Thompson (King of Random) has a great YouTube tutorial on how to make a key-hold big enough for modern fob keys — the kind that contain a transponder that work at a distance. This is the crazy-strong magnet I used for our hidden key-holds. It is cheap insurance compared to a locksmith visit. — KK 

I use a non-locking carabiner, kind of like this one, to hold all my key rings. I can quickly and easily unclip my excess keys while I’m driving to keep them from jangling. — CD 

I’ve sung the praises of this 40x lighted hand held magnifier many times before. It’s $2.00 on Amazon. I splurged and bought three. I can now read the numbers on tiny capacitors, inspect splinters in great detail, and check my kid’s head for louse nits. Uses 3AAA batteries (not included) — MF 

I never had much luck using superglue. It really wasn’t instant, it didn’t seem to bond tightly, and I’d get it all over my fingers. The trade secret to using superglue (which all serious model-makers seem to know) is to use an accelerator with it. You spray the glued joint with this catalyst solvent and it cures the glue instantly. Or you can spray one half of the joint with the accelerator and when it touches the other half with the glue it bonds instantly. Yes! I got a small spray bottle of accelerator (the brand name doesn’t matter much) but it is so useful I now get the combination of glue+accelerator in larger quantities. — KK 

The Big Squeeze Tube Squeezer ($35) forces every last drop of goop out of a tube. It can handle tubes up to 3.375” wide. To use it, insert the end of the tube between the two rollers, squeeze the handle and turn the key. The tube is completely flattened, and because of the serrated design of the rollers, the tube is crimped so it stays flat. I’ve used it on tubes of toothpaste, acrylic paint, and lithium grease. It’s all metal and heavy duty. — MF 

Any bones or skulls you collect can be whitened up without using chlorine bleach, which can weaken the bone. Use concentrated hydrogen peroxide, which will fizz and brighten bone to a brilliant white very quickly. You need stronger stuff than the dilute peroxide found in drug stores. Head to the hair care aisle or hair product stores, and look for bottles of concentrated H2O2 in bottles labeled as Clairoxide or the like. — KK 

Don’t throw away a can of spray paint when the nozzle is not working. If there is still paint inside you can easily swap the nozzle with another one from another can of paint that is working. Just pull it off and swap. Clean it when you are done by turning the can upside down and spraying till it is clear. Then you can return the nozzle to the original can if you want. To get really geeky, order extra nozzles online. — KK 

I use Goo Gone to remove stickers from glass and plastic, but when I need to remove a label from a book cover or cardboard, the Scotty Peeler Label and Sticker Remover does the trick. The flat tapered edge fits between a label and the surface and, if you work slowly and carefully, will remove the label without marring the surface of your book or other item. — MF 

I’ve started whittling spoons again and I recently discovered flexible sanding sheets made by 3M. I’ll never use sandpaper again. These sheets are made from some kind of semi-stretchy plastic that makes it very easy to get the grit into tight spots (like the hollow of a spoon). They last much longer than sandpaper, too. — MF 

I have a supply of nitrile gloves on hand. I wear them to prevent my hands from getting dirty, like when handling rat traps or greasing the wheels on my garage door. I also use them to keep my hands from smearing nice things, like high quality art paper for my wide-format printer. Two hundred ambidextrous gloves cost $13.50 on Amazon. (Tip: some tasks require just one glove.) — MF 

Everyday, multiple times a day, I use my handy snap-blade utility box-cutter knife. It costs 2 dollars. It’s made of day-glo orange plastic. I use it like a pocket knife for opening and liberating all kinds of things, but it weighs almost nothing (no pocket wear), is easy to re-sharpen (snap off the end), instant to engage, and quick to put back. They are so cheap and featherweight I keep one in all my pants, coats, and bags. If I lose it I don’t care. I really miss having them when I travel by air (although I know from unintentional experience they are usually undetectable by the machines.) — KK

I have a large self-healing mat on my workbench, and I have smaller cutting mats I lay on a table if I am working. The non-skid surface keeps parts and pieces stationary, while the cushion prevents dings in the table top beneath. And of course, the self-healing mat is ideal for cutting fabrics, paper, etc. with razors and blades. It also protects from spills better than cardboard. It is easy to clean up: just tilt and wipe. It’s become my default surface for any work. Get the largest size you can. At the minimum, an 18 x 24 inch mat covers well and yet is portable and easy to store. — KK 

If you have an Amazon Prime account, you can buy a plastic dispenser bottle of 24 Goo Gone wipes for $9. It has a pleasant citrus smell and works like a charm to remove chewing gum jar labels, tree sap, sticker adhesive and more from most any surface. — MF 

Our friend Gareth Branwyn has a new book out, called Tips and Tales from the Workshop. It’s loaded with very useful tips, not only for makers, but for everyone, really. The majority of the tips are new to me (like using hot glue as an electronics insulator). I know what I’m giving friends for Christmas this year. – MF 

I derive great enjoyment and instruction from watching YouTube videos of Jimmy DiResta making stuff. All kinds of things from knives, to tables, to weird art. He is a master general-purpose craftsman, and with few words, he lets his actions speak. When he gives tips, he is awesome. For a great example, witness his Hot Glue Tips. – KK 

I like this guy’s YouTube channel, the $50 Workshop. He’s bootstrapping a woodworking workshop starting with $50 worth of store-bought tools, and then using them to build his own table saw, drill press, etc. He makes things from scrap wood with his current tools to buy parts to make better tools. It’s encouraged me to make my own tools. — KK 

I made a 30-second video that shows how to wrap cables so that they stay wrapped, don’t get tangled, and are very easy to unwrap. — MF 

Maker Update is a YouTube show where host Donald Bell presents his favorite maker projects, kits, and tools. Episodes are less than 10 minutes and are well-produced. — MF 

I’m a big fan of YouTube tutorials by folks who make things. One of the best YouTube channels for cool and unusual doable (by an average person) projects is Grant Thompson’s King of Random. He has a well-deserved following of 7.5 million subscribers. His detailed instructions are impeccably researched, his build details are clever yet totally reliable, and his project designs are extremely fun and even “dangerous” in a good way. His videos are blueprints for his projects but also teach me how to do my own. — KK

For generations hipsters have been retro-fitting vans into mobile homes. Once they were VW vans; today they are Dodge Sprinter vans. The best source I’ve come across for tutorials on how to remodel a used cargo van into a roaming house is a YouTube channel by Dylan Magaster. Magaster collects diverse videos of hundreds of regular folks building their vans and tiny homes in great and satisfying detail. — KK