- Nail guns tricks can come in handy.construction worker, carpenter image by Greg Pickens from Fotolia.com
Nail guns make carpentry and woodworking faster and more efficient. Nail guns are capable of applications that cannot be mastered by hand with hammer and nail. Nail gun specialties aid in the assembly of furniture, cabinets, or woodworking projects. Test yourself by trying some tried and tested nail gun tricks. - You can use a nail gun as a nail set to surgically set any nail without the common "divot" caused by hand-held hammers. To set any nail, start off by removing all the nails from the nail gun. Leave the gun plugged into the air, and then position the open end of the nail gun, where the nail comes out, over the nail that needs to be set. When the gun is in position, fire it. The driver will come out, strike the nail and set it cleanly below the surface of the wood.
- When a given nail is too long, and switching to a shorter nail is not long enough, use the long nail at a steep angle. By tilting the gun you can still penetrate both pieces of wood without going through. Nail guns are fast enough to slice through wood fibers diagonally without deflecting. For example, if you are going to nail two pieces of 3/4-inch stock together, the standard nail to use would be 1 1/4-inch. By using a 1 1/2-inch nail and angling it slightly, you get more holding power without penetrating the surface of the opposing piece of wood.
- To have better holding power when laminating, fire nails half-way into one of the boards being laminated. Pull up on the side of the spring-loaded guard with one hand. This allows the gun to fire without compressing the end of the guard. Hold the gun 1/2-inch above the surface of the wood and pull the trigger. It will shoot a nail half-way into the wood. Clip the top of the nail off with diagonal pliers. Use the small leftover spike sticking up to hold the next piece of lamination in place and prevent it from sliding when you apply glue and clamps.
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