Q: The Formica counters in my New Hampshire cottage are 50 years old and have an aluminum edge with a snap-in red strip right down the middle. Some of the strips have broken off.
Where can I find such strips?
SUSAN SHNIDMAN,
Lexington
A: Good luck. Styles change often in decor, and one 50 years old is unlikely to have any spare parts.
Check with any Formica dealer. If you can't find any, have the dealer cut red Formica into thin strips so you can glue them in the edge space with an adhesive caulk.
Q: I have a 12-foot wood extension ladder. A rung in the middle in missing. Can I put in a new rung?
ANNE,
from Yonkers
A: No. Cut it up for firewood. If one is gone, others will go too, probably with you on them. Years ago I had a good wood ladder, which I had to keep outdoors.
One day I put it against the wall and stepped on the first rung, and it broke. That 10-inch drop felt like 3 feet. But it got me to cut it up for firewood.
SELF-SHARPENING LAWN MOWER
Remember the item recently on sharpening a reel (push) mower? There are places that sharpen them, but Charles Reynolds of Melrose called to tell us that reel mowers can sharpen themselves as they move, because their blades cut grass with a scissors motion.
Said Reynolds: "On each end of the cutter bar (the one you can't move), there is a set screw. Loosen one and tighten the other, ever so
The Boston Globe
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