Shop Cheats: Hook and Eye Driver

I find projects everywhere I go. Recently I was visiting a friend and wound up helping him with a few projects around the house. And thanks to this little Shop Cheat we were able to save a little time and effort.

If you have ever had to use hook or eye fasteners, you understand how little fun they are to turn. But no longer will you loath these hardware pieces. In fact you may even look forward to use them! And all you need is some sort of power drill and a bent arm Allen/hex wrench.

All you need to do is chuck the Allen/hex wrench in the drill and sort of hook it into the hook or eye that you want to turn. Start the fastener by hand, about the time you get fed up is all the more you want. Then get a good bite on it with you improvised driver (it's one of those things that you can only do by feel) and SLOWLY power up the drill. Then all you have to do is decide when to stop.

• As you can see it the second video hooks can be a little tricky. I was rushing a little bit, but there is a bit of a trick to it.
• One other thought is that if you had extra hook screws laying around you could use one as a driver too.
• I only used hook and eye screws here but this trick will also work with hook and eye bolts.
• Finally I need to give credit where credit is due. I learned of this cheat from the "Home Shop Machinist" e-mail newsletter.