Nailgun Furniture construction

[tabbypurr]

Tried using a 1st fix nailgun to make timber furniture today for the first time, with 95mm plain nails. I was hoping as much as possible could be nail ed to speed up production. What I learnt:

1 nail in 36x63mm wood doesn't split it, but 2 do. These nails pull out easily if one is used per joint. Use 2 at different an gles and it's very tough to get apart.

I also used a design for the first time where many of the nails/screws/etc were in tension and holding the loads rather than just keeping the wood in place while the wood took the loads. In short, nails are inadequate for thi s type of arrangement, screws were fine. Screws held far better, just were a lot slower!

As I expected the firing shock can move the joints during nailing. That ain 't news. But the nice result is that even firing at 45 degree joints turned out to be generally workable.

Nails don't always go in straight. A couple of joints had to be redone wher e the nail poked its way out. One of these split the wood.

I wanted deeper fixings than 95mm in 2 places, so tried drilling a 10mm wid e recess hole and firing the nail into it. The result was the nails failed to recess at all.

So it can be done, but with gotchas. Ring shanks would probably be a much b etter choice. I don't know if you can get glue coated nails for the paslode - if so they might be a good choice for this.

NT

[Andy Burns]

A nail-gun does seem a step too far for furniture, but I saw Izzy Swan using template jigs and screws to speed up production of chairs from two-by planks

[John Rumm]

A first fix / framing nailers, are not particularly subtle it has to be said. Smaller second fix, brad and pin nailers however can be quite useful even in fine furniture.

[tabbypurr]

for sure. I was determined to see if it was possible.

yes, and it is getting a small amount of 2nd fix nailing, though there are no glued joints.

In short building it with a 1st fixer is possible, but needs at least 36x63 with a fair bit of angled bracing to work, and still needs at least a few screws to hold it all together firmly. And 2 nails well spaced apart at dif ferent angles make a lot of difference.

NT

[Andy Burns]

I have some brad nails for the arrow tacker, obviously it doesn't have much oomph, so they're limited in length, so only useful for fixing e.g.

6mm MDF backs to cabinets.

I don't have a compressor, so I looked at 18v brad nailers but they seem pretty expensive at around the £400 quid mark ...

[John Rumm]

Most of the smaller nailers have pretty modest air requirements, so a small cheap compressor is usually plenty... Even if you add in the cost of that its going to be cheaper in many cases that the cordless version.

(although for construction work, a cordless framing nailer is so much easier!)

[tabbypurr]

Toolsatan has 2" 18 gauge brad cordless nailer for somewhere around £1

30, Aldi had them recently at £80.

NT