Are you a DIY practitioner? Do you enjoy building things, fixing stuff and generally making yourself useful around the house? If so, you’ll appreciate the 32-page DIY Handbook accompanying this issue of PM. Aside from the host of useful hints, it showcases a compelling variety of what we term “non-threatening” projects – that is, the sort of challenge that won’t make you turn pale and reach for the Yellow Pages.

Compiling our annual DIY handbook has become more a labour of love than a chore, exposing us to all manner of good ideas and practical solutions to everyday DIY challenges. Interacting with our readers across a variety of channels – including e-mail correspondence, audience surveys, face-to-face conversations, social media exchanges and visits to trade shows – we’ve met a bunch of amazing people who are quite happy to share their hard-earned DIY experience, and occasionally their secrets.

This year’s compelling line-up addresses a variety of common domestic problems – from sticking doors to leaking taps, from sagging gates to dodgy showers – and offers sensible solutions. We also showcase an assortment of non-threatening projects (remember, it’s all relative), tackle two slightly off-beat Saturday builds (have you ever dreamed of making your own T-shirt cannon?) and unpack a gloriously eclectic mix of hints from our readers – all delivered in language that encourages rather than frightens.

So what’s with “down and dirty”? Hey, we’re speaking from personal experience here. Whereas we don’t actually recommend bruises, expletives, mislaid tools and the like, we have to say that anyone who emerges from a DIY job without so much as a pinched fi nger or grubby face is either pathologically focused or hasn’t really put his heart into it.

The Editors

Some of our projects, hints, problems and fi xes are extracted from the following Popular Mechanics titles, published by Hearst Books (a division of Sterling Publishing Inc): When Duct Tape Just Isn’t Enough, How to Carve a Turkey, When Changing a Light Bulb Just Isn’t Enough. Available from selected book retailers or via Kalahari.com

A request: if you’re inspired by our T-shirt cannon project and actually pluck up the nerve to build one, we would love to hear from you.