Problems nailing oak trim

Oct 26, 2004 27 Replies
D

I am building Norm's router table. He finshes the edges of the plywood carcass with 3/4" x 3/4" oak trim. I have done this before on another project but I glued and clamped it. Since this is not a piece of furniture and there was a lot of trim to put on I decided to use glue and 3D finishing nails. I drilled pilot holes for each of the nails but 50% of them bent and I had to do them again. I wonder if I should have been using a different nail or.....................



I'd appreciate your suggestions for the future. I don't plan on buying a brad nailer anytime soon so I need to figure out how to solve this problem for the next project I do that needs nailing through oak.



TIA.



Dick Snyder


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I

Have you considered a nail spinner?

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B

just glue and clamps is better.

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L

USE GLUE and drill the holes a bit undersized AND all the way through.

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P

You are using the wrong bit to drill the pilot hole. Cut the head off one of the finish nails, chuck it into your drill and use it to drill your pilot hole.

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B

That's quite absurd. A nail will not drill into solid oak, a nail is not a drill bit.

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B

Nailspinner is useless. Just drill the pilot hole larger or deeper as needed. This is pretty simple stuff here guys

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D

Wanna bet?

David

Battleax wrote:

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D

Pretty standard trim carpenter trick if waxed nails don't work.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) snipped-for-privacy@7cox.net

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L

Quite quickly will the nail will spin through the wood.

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B

Sure it will go through if you push hard enough, but it's poor practice

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F

Seen it recommended often enough.

Josie

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B

Actually, this works very well. I do it all the time in hickory and it's harder than oak.

Bryan

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B

My thunder is almost gone, but hard trim nails work better than regular, and you can grind the head off easier than cutting it.

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M

Never tried it, have you? This has been a common practice since shortly after man invented fire and used it to keep his Neanderthal wood shop warm. It actually works very well.

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M

Not real hard at all. Poor practice? Why would you say such a thing?

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L

Actually with finish nail sized nails, they go through with not much effort at all. The key is to use a corded drill that will spin the nail quickly.

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E

I've found the spinners handy for installing oak stair treads for 20 years.... I guess I could have saved 3 or 4 years if I hadn't been using it?

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A

The real problem with using a nail is that it denies one the pleasure of buying the proper tool for the job

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