Some screws are turned by hand, others lost their head, and one looks like a sea monster. It might be time you read up on your screw heads.

It's just a clever use of light that can save you time, frustration, and potentially your car or bicycle tires. What would be even better is to avoid dropping your screws in the first place.

I mostly use screws only for temporarily holding things in place while I nail stuff up and for the decking surface. However, on one deck I built last year I used a ton of structural screws.

To keep screws and nails from causing a hazard on the floor when they get dropped, use a magnet to pick them up. Sure, there are specific tools for this, but really any magnet will do.

2. Use ScrewGrab. ScrewGrab is a gel that increases friction when applied to a screw head. Perez says he keeps a bottle of it in his toolbox because it often comes in handy.

Charles Vander Woerd, a superintendent at the American Watch Co. in Waltham, Mass., invented this machine in 1871. It was the first automatic lathe to make watch screws. Fed rod stock by a machine ...