It seems I’m always gathering up small screws and other hardware from the bench during hinge installation and other operations. I got tired of having to pick them up by hand, so I came up with this little solution. It’s just a magnet attached to the end of a dowel that slides inside a 35-mm film canister. To “activate” the unit, slide the magnet to the bottom of the canister and pick up your hardware. To release the hardware, retract the magnet. Simple. It’s also a great way to separate steel screws from brass and aluminum versions.
To make the pickup, attach a 1"-diameter rare-earth magnet (Woodcraft #150952) to the end of a 1⁄2"-diameter dowel about 3" long. I screwed on a 1" steel cup designed for attaching magnets (Woodcraft #150962), but you could use epoxy instead. Drill a hole in the canister cap to accept the dowel, put the parts together, and it’s ready to go.
