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My neighbor recently opened an interior wall to do some plumbing and accidentally dropped a wrench into a deep, hard-to-reach cavity.

Rather than closing up the wall and losing a good tool, he asked if I had a magnet he could use to retrieve the wrench.

I didn’t, but I did have a small-diameter length of semi-rigid plastic tubing and a couple of pieces of sturdy wire — which I put to use solving the problem.

Here is what I did:

• First, I fashioned a simple pincher/gripper tool as shown in the accompanying drawing.
  
  
• Then, I slid the plastic tubing down the wire to lock the wire around the wrench being retrieved.

I am happy to report that my device worked and retrieved the wrench the first time I used it, and my neighbor was delighted.

— Harold S. Pearce, Christchurch, New Zealand

Tips & Techniques provided by Fine Homebuilding.
©2010 The Taunton Press

To contact Fine Homebuilding, e-mail Christina Glennon.

Get NAHB BuilderBooks 2010 Virtual Publications Catalog Online

The NAHB 2010 Publications Catalog from NAHB BuilderBooks is available online.

Presented in a virtual format as part of the NAHB BuilderBooks effort to go green and streamline delivery, the catalog includes publications and products to help building industry professionals ramp up for a successful year as the industry and the economy begin to recover.

The materials in the catalog, written by industry leaders in various fields of residential construction, feature publications and products about accounting, estimating, business management, green building, sales and marketing, safety, construction codes, 50+ housing, multifamily housing, construction management remodeling and more.

Some of the newest publications in the catalog include “Social Media for Home Builders,” the “National Green Building Standard Commentary” and “Paper Trail: Systems and Forms for a Well-Run Remodeling Company, Second Edition.”

To view the virtual catalog, click here.