Give Any Screwdriver Magnetic Powers With This Genius Hack

It's a tale as old as time. You're one screw away from finishing a home repair, but you have to thread the screw in a hard-to-reach spot ... and you drop the screw. You can't see where it fell and can't reach wherever it might have gone. Now, and only now, though, you remember TikToker Nick Starrett's video, where he demonstrated how to magnetize any screwdriver in one step: simply attach a magnet to the screwdriver's shaft.

Just about any magnet will do, and the hack will work on any steel screwdriver and most screws. (You'll still have to take care with brass, some types of stainless screws, and a few other oddball screws that aren't magnetic.) The trick works best with Phillips head screws because they're already easier to keep on your screwdriver, but it's probably most valuable with slotted (flat head) screws, which can be a pain under the best of circumstances.

To pull off this magnetic magic the next time you need to find a screw lost on the floor or down a drain, all you have to do is place a magnet on the shaft of your screwdriver, near the tip. It's literally a one-step hack. As for the magnet, as said, just about any will do. However, a stronger magnet obviously will have a stronger hold on your fastener. Neodymium magnets are super-strong rare earth magnets, which you can get for about $3, for a pack of 10 (via Harbor Freight).

Note, however, if you find yourself trying to maneuver your screw around a bunch of steel parts, strong magnets might have a tendency to snap to the nearest piece of metal, making your work all but impossible. If you expect to navigate screws around metal a lot, it might make sense to keep a few weaker magnets on hand as well. In a pinch, you can probably borrow some from your kitchen; there are other ways to spice up a refrigerator besides kids' drawings, after all.

This trick works on other tools as well, such as hammers and sockets. You can use this trick on drill driver bits, for example, but take care not to fling your magnet across the room by using your drill at high speed with the magnet attached. And if you do inadvertently scatter magnets around, remember that rare earth magnets can be very dangerous to children; a ban on these types of magnets was lifted in 2016, per Poison Control.