how to get oblong nails out of old floorboards?

[george [dicegeorge]]

i've levered up some floorboards, turned them over, hammered at the oblong nails: but nine out of ten bend over and snap off. Why can't I hammer them out of the wood? Is there a knack to it?

[g]

[Usenet Nutter]

I've done that quite a lot on my boards and can't say I had much bother ...just make sure you straighten them first and gently hammer them out .If you hit them while they are still bent then they won't come out easily . If you can get the head out at all then try a claw hammer on the head.

[geraldthehamster]

What he said. Possibly you're using too heavy a hammer or hitting them too hard.

If you've snapped one off, try to straighten out what's left and punch it through far enough that you can get a grip on the head with a claw hammer.

Cheers Richard

[The Medway Handyman]

Wot they both said.

Grip with mole grips & wiggle until head protrudes, then use claw hammer.

[Jules]

Set fire to boards, use magnet to extract nails from ashes.

[Adrian C]

If you can get the head out at all then try a claw

Wot the three of 'em said, & I'll add the use of carpenters pincers for the really bent ones.

Tightly grip the protuding nail end (not the head) with a pincer held at

45'ish degrees to the board, and using the rounded head of the pincer as a fulcrum of a lever, rock the tool to vertical, pushing & reversing the nail out of the board. Then when the head is out, go for it with the pincer on the other side ...

[Frank Erskine]

What - no WD-40? It -is- specifically designed to remove cut nails...

[Cash]

Try putting the boards on something solid (such as a saw horse) with the nails close to the horse before clouting them out with a 20oz claw hammer. If you aren't doing that and holding the boards in your hands, then the 'spring' of the board is causing the problems.

Cash

[george [dicegeorge]]

i hadnt thought of hitting it softly, that the hammer was too heavy!

One set of pincers seems to be too sharp - it often breaks off the nails, should i blunten it with a file or is it for another purpose?

Will read your posts again in the morning before I try some more.

thanks

[g]

[bluesky]

Once you have the board(s) up turn over & lay flat on the floor so that the spikey end is pointing up. then use the claw of the your claw hammer to lever them out, through the board. Don't use the hammer 'longitudinally' (i.e. along the line of the board) do that laterally (i.e. with the claw & head across the board) then use one side of the claw as your fulcrum as you lever out the nail (the lever action is in the line of the board). Don't try to knock the nails out back the way they came in - that won;t work and will actually damage the surface of the board. You have to pull them through.

[Usenet Nutter]

Yeah Right !!!

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Same knack as hammering in a new nail. It has to start off straight and you have to hit it square.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You're gripping it too tightly. If it is sharp it will 'dig in' to the nail with less force than a blunt one. With practice you should sort of feel this happening. But likely not if you wear gloves.

[gilli]

Hi, If you cannot, using a nail punch, punch it back out the way it came in without causing damage to the boards, as one other suggested, possibly try punching the head through the board.

Does, however, raise the question of whether you can use a new nail in the enlarged hole with good holding and cosmetic results.

If you are going to screw them back down, it doesn't matter.

Of course, if you were,presumably you would leave the nail heads in place having broken them off at the back of the board.

I would consider, perhaps breaking off the nail at the back perhaps a centimeter short of the board, then turn over and work on the face side.

Hold the punch at a 45 degree angle against the end of the oval head and punch it gently in the direction of the grain.

Then do the same from the other end of the oval head.

Perhaps that will loosen the nail in the wood, where, presumably, rust and chemical reactions are holding it tight in the wood.

Then you can tap it out the way it came in wiithout damaging the face grain.

Time consuming and fiddly, but worth it as the boards are expensive, as you will know.

Good luck David G

[JimK]

mmmm if these are cut clasps (OP says "oblong") that will be hard and even if poss. make a real mess of the surface...

JimK

[Tim Lamb]

In message , "george [dicegeorge]" writes

I generally manage to hammer mine out. Usually lifts a splinter of wood from the face side.

I suppose you could make up a hollow steel drift to get them started. Pincers or claw hammer to finish the job.

Alternatively you could fit your hollow drift in the vice, inset the nail and then hammer on the face side with a second hollow drift. This should avoid the splinter but give you a nice round dent instead.

regards

[Dave Liquorice]

And there has to be somewhere for the head to go as it emerges from the board.

[geraldthehamster]

Yes, I agree. Chances are they are flooring brads with L-shaped heads. I've removed a lot of these from old floorboards - they should be knocked out the way they came in.

Entirely different from, for example removing panel pins from mouldings taken off ols panelled doors, where you do need to pull the heads right through the timber (in the direction the nail was going, so to speak), to avoid samage to the surface. Not true of cut brads in floorboards.

Cheers Richard

[geraldthehamster]

It occurs to me also, that if the boards are to be re-layed in different places, you might not be able to re-use the same holes. In that case, if you have one or two brads that have snapped off underneath, there's probably no harm in leaving the heads in the timber, if you can't get them out. If you intend to sand the boards, you should punch them 1/8 below the surface.

Cheers Richard

[RobertL]

You might be using too heavy a hammer, or hitting them to hard. You need to use a lot of smaller taps rather than a few big clouts. the same applies when hamemring them in as well. if you hit too hard they bend - lots of small taps leaves them straight.

Robert