subject: Carpentry Tips - How to do nailing by:Joanna Harris [print this page] Though nailing seems to be an easy job at first hand, but if you are not expert at nailing, you may injure yourself or simply spend a lot of time trying to do it the right way. To make the job easy, less time consuming and safer, you should know some tips and tricks of carpentry. Nailing is the basic carpentry job. If you follow these tricks and have little practice, you will achieve the required results faster.
First and the most basic tip for nailing is that you should loosen your grip on the hammer. Do not clutch it in death grip.
Hold the nail between a thumb and a forefinger and turn your fingers in such a manner that your fingernails touch the board. Now start hammering. In case you miss the nail, it is probable that you hit the fleshy side of your fingers.
In case, you are using a very small nail, use a fine-toothed comb to hold the nail, otherwise you may hit your fingers very badly. When the nail comes near the board, remove the comb and nail will be completely driven into the wood.
Apply light hammer strokes on the nail until it is inside the board, one-third of its length. If you hit it hard before that, nail can fly right into your face. When it gets inside, you can hit it harder.
While doing this job, you should wear a canvas nail apron. It will help you hold your supplies. You can hold pouches of nails in its pockets and it is very convenient.
One thing you must know is that the knotty parts of the wood are quite tough to break in. So avoid putting nails there. You will find it hard to drive it in. Choose the regular surface of the board to put the nail.
While putting the nail near the end of a board, board may crack or split. To avoid this, you should make the nail blunt a little bit. For this, tap its pointed end a few times over the hammer.
If it is getting tough to drive in a nail, there is a trick. Rub the nail over a bar of soap. This act will reduce friction in the nail.
Other way is to make a pilot hole in the board using a drill. Diameter of the drill should be slightly smaller than the diameter of the nail.
What happens sometimes is when hammer miss the nail and hits the wood. It leaves "half Moon" shape mark of the board which looks ugly. To avoid this, you can place a piece of thin plywood before you start hammering. In case of a miss, you will hit the junk wood.
About the author
Joanna is a well renowned Polish Journalist specialising in Polish, Russian and English translation services. She has been residing in UK for 3 years where she has made her home among the Polish community in Tooting, South West London.
