A small section of the tall wooden fence in our back yard fell down, and rather than just put back into place and add a few more deck screws to it, EJ wanted me to turn it onto a gate.And by the way, could I replace one of the treads on the front porch.

Which all sounded like a a pretty good idea, and didn’t look too hard, so I took some measurements, made some scribbles on the iPad, and headed up to Lowes Friday after work to pick up everything we’d need for the job.

Almost everything anyway.

Final count: Two trips to Lowes, one to Home Depot, and one to the nearby hardware store where they didn’t have 2″ deck screws.

The tread was pretty easy, since all I had to do was rip up the old one and screw in a new piece of 2×12 pressure treated lumber with three inch deck screws. It’s not going anywhere soon. Granted the color’s a bit off, but a little weathering will help that, and the whole porch is getting rebuilt within a year.

The fence to gate transition was a lot more fun. First I reconstructed the original section lying flat on the ground, then added a diagonal brace on the back and built up the top and bottom sections so it would bear its own weight. The self closing hinge set I picked up at Lowes opened the wrong way, meaning I had to put the hinge on the outside of the gate where an enterprising character with a screwdriver could take it apart even though they couldn’t get to the latch. It would take a while though, and as it’s only a wood fence, really…a few firm boot-kicks would accomplish much the same.

Things were going pretty well on the project, despite the near 100 degree heat. I started at 8 am and knocked off at noon, and all told it took both Saturday and Sunday to do. Saturday I managed to push myself into heat exhaustion regardless, but Sunday I only had to add a few touches, like a slide bolt and upper brace, and though I started later I was still in pretty good shape when I knocked off.

I had a lucky bit of mishap on Saturday, when my faithful magnetic screwdriver bit holder fell off my Ryobi One cordless drill. Into the leaves and vines beyond the fence. Twice.

The first time I found it without too much trouble, but the second time no amount of searching would turn it up. Since it was about noon and I was about ready for fall over from the heat…I took the hint. Really, it had every right to fall off. It had been pretty well worn out for a while, and I just kept putting it back whenever it came off.

All of which more or less brings us to the point of today’s post.

EJ thought I had scrap lumber in storage, which would be handy as I wanted to put something across the top of the gate opening to stiffen the whole thing up. We stopped, we looked, we dropped off half the tools…and didn’t find anything. No worries. An early Sunday morning trip to Lowes, possibly with a stop at the Starbucks next door for a Grande Light Mocha Frap (no whip) was actually kind of fun.

And it was there I found the DeWALT 12 PC Magnetic Drive guide set (DW2089).

Amazon lists this handy little set for $9.99. Which isn’t unreasonable, but at Lowes it was only $3.89, which is a freakin steal. For the money you get two magentic bit holders and a collection of basic bits (two each of the most popular), and a pocketable case that has a handy compartment for the smaller (normal sized) bit holder. But that’s not what elevates this into cool tool territory.

[amazon_link id=”B004Q04Q6E” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]The magnetic bit holder has a sleeve that both rotates and extends, slipping over the body of a small screw (or bolt) and holding it straight until it catches. If that doesn’t sound like a terrific innovation, you probably haven’t ever driven screws with a drill/screwdriver.

Sometimes its a good thing when a tool wears out, especially if you get a better one in the bargain.