How To Pull Out Old Nails
How to Remove Stuck Nails: Hammer Tips
Updated: Jun. 30, 2017
Stubborn nail got you stumped? Try these tricks for pulling the toughest nails.
Acquire to pull aptitude or errant nails rapidly and efficiently with your hammer, a true cat'southward paw, nippers, and a wood block, or cut them with a reciprocating saw. You can remove them without damaging surrounding materials.
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Technique 1: Maximize your hammer ability
Photograph 1: Side pull with hammer claw
Ram the hook of your hammer into the nail shank and rock information technology sideways using the claw edge as a pin point. Echo the process until you pry out the blast. This technique produces maximum pulling power with little stress on the handle.
Back when I was a rookie garage-builder, the lead carpenter warned me that driving a nail nearly a knot is a waste of time for three reasons: First, the blast volition bend in the dumbo wood surrounding the knot before yous can drive information technology dwelling. 2d, information technology'll be solidly wedged in the woods and tough to pull out. And third, you could break a hammer handle tugging at information technology.
I was stubborn and had to acquire by experience. But I never broke a hammer handle, because I started out with an unbreakable all-steel model. By the time I graduated to a nicely balanced wooden-handled model, I'd learned how to pull nails rapidly and efficiently enough to hardly break my nailing rhythm.
A hammer isn't the best nail-pulling tool, but since information technology's already in your hand, use it. Ram the claw into the nail shank as close every bit possible to the wood and stone it sideways (Photograph 1). And so repeat the process, pulling the boom about 1/2 in. each time. You develop terrific pulling power, plenty to excerpt fifty-fifty those tough cement-coated or galvanized nails, without straining your hammer handle or arm.
Considering the hammer claw grabs the nail's shank, this method normally works even when the nail caput has broken off. Just it has a couple of drawbacks. The edge of the head will bite into and dent the forest. If yous don't want to mar the surface, slide a 1/four-in.-thick piece of wood under the edge before pulling. Besides, a worn claw might slip on the shank and not deliver any pull. And finally, the pulling ability can be then great that the boom shank might break before the nail lets go. At that bespeak, either clip it flush to the wood with a side-cut pliers and leave information technology, or saw through it (Photo 5).
Technique two: Protect those finished surfaces with a block
Photo 2: Use a block to protect finished surfaces
Rest the hammer on a small cake to protect finished surfaces. For a straight pull, size the block so the pivot point is as close to the nail as possible.
Shove a block of flake woods under the hammer caput to protect delicate surfaces, like the cedar decking in Photo 2. The block also gives the hammer claw better leverage, and then you can ofttimes rock the hammer directly back on its head rather than sideways. But not always. Use this direct pull but on nails that come out fairly easily or aren't driven deeply. Otherwise y'all could break a wooden-handled hammer. Although you lot tin yank a lot harder on hammers with a fiberglass or steel handle, you lot'll notice it's a lot easier to use a sideways pull.
Technique three: Dig for buried nails
Photograph 3: Employ a cat'due south paw
Drive the hook of a cat'southward manus under the nailhead and lever it out. A cat'due south hand tin can even reach buried nailheads.
Buried nails are no match for a cat's paw, an essential tool to carry for all rough framing piece of work. Emphasize "rough," because you drive the claw under the cached nailhead and rock the handle back firmly (Photograph 3). The short claw develops tremendous leverage and will pull almost any nail. A strong, steady pull works all-time. If y'all jerk the handle, yous could popular the head off the nail, especially with 16d galvanized nails. Y'all can utilize it for bent nails too. Just you lot have to put a cake under the true cat'southward paw to develop practiced leverage, as in Photo 2, or slide your hammer head under information technology to shim it up.
Drawback: Even with a deft impact, the true cat's mitt digs upwardly a divot of woods effectually the nailhead and leaves a distinct "paw print" behind when you lot rock it dorsum. It's non a finish tool.
Technique iv: Bulldoze it through
Photograph 4: Drive it through
Punch finish nails all the mode through with a nail set up or pin punch so you don't have to pull them. This technique works best on finish trim that's less than 5/8 in. thick.
Finish carpentry sometimes calls for more refined tactics to avoid ruining a valuable piece of woodwork. You tin can pull about bent stop nails with the hammer-and- block technique shown earlier or with pliers.
But if you can't pry trim off without damaging information technology, drive the finish nails completely through the trim (Photo iv) and popular it off. Yous can use either a 1/32-in. nail set or a ane/16-in. pin punch (purchase at home centers and hardware stores). They are peculiarly handy for releasing window and door casings that have been cross-nailed to hold the miters together.
Drawbacks: Use the smash fix for thin woodwork. Otherwise, you'll leave a fairly large round hole on the front side to fill up later. And work advisedly most ends, because the blast set tin can divide the wood.
Technique 5: Cut the tough ones
Photo v: Cut hard-to-accomplish nails
For maximum speed, cut the nails with a reciprocating saw equipped with a ten-teeth-per- inch all-purpose blade. It's ideal for rough work and demolition.
A reciprocating saw can cut through nails in a fraction of the time it takes to pull them (Photo 5). Plus it'll reach nails yous tin't go at whatever other way. Many all-purpose blades cut both wood and nails, simply buy the ten-teeth-per-inch type because it cuts through hardened drywall screws likewise. With a deft bear on, you tin can also do fragile work, like reaching behind trim to cutting nails, every bit well as screws and bolts, without marring the wood.
Drawback: Chances are that the bract volition pinch while cutting tight spots, so push the saw guard tightly against the wood and hold the saw firmly.
Technique 6: Pull them from the back
Photo 6: Pull from the backside
Grab the end boom on the back side with nippers and lever the smash out. Its head will pull through with piddling damage to the wood.
Finish trim is expensive and worth salvaging whenever possible. If you can pry it off, pull the stop nails from the behind (Photo 6). They'll splinter the front if you bulldoze them back through. A nippers works well, merely then practice skid-joint pliers and locking pliers.
Required Tools for this Project
Accept the necessary tools for this DIY project lined up earlier you start—you'll salve fourth dimension and frustration.
Originally Published: June twenty, 2017
Source: https://www.familyhandyman.com/project/how-to-remove-stuck-nails-hammer-tips/
Posted by: kingwhooksgivem.blogspot.com
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