Bent nails?

[Ellen Benkin]

This is kind of a mundane problem but I've never seen it here before. I was attaching banding to a table using glue and brads and I shot one of the brads too high and it stuck out over the table top. I can't pound it back out without bending the nail and I can't seem to pull it through. My solution was to bend it until I could bury it in the banding and then cover the ding with wood putty. Does anyone have a better idea?

[Jim Morgan]

You could try heating it up a little with a soldering gun/iron. The heat drives some moisture out of the wood so it shrinks a bit and loses its grip.

[Rich Engelhardt]

We make - - "Puller-outerers" out of these:

https://www.harborfreight.com/10-inch-heavy-duty-end-nipper-38496.html

by taking a drill mounted grinding wheel or Dremel grinding wheel and grinding the jaw faces flat - so they don't cut the nail/staple/fastener.
The curved shape of the jaws exerts just the right amount of force to "roll" the tool over and pry the fastener out nice and slick.


Lowes and Home Depot also have them - but - they are like twice the price.

It's imperative that the face of the jaws be ground dead flat - otherwise it will just snip the fastener instead of gripping it.
We've (my wife and I doing rehabs on houses) have pulled maybe - close to 10,000 fasteners of all kinds with these things and haven't had a properly ground one snip a fastener yet.

[johnny means]

Did the nail happen to bend sideways, perpendicular to the direction of the nail gun. That's usually the case. Holding the nailer perpendicular to your edge will usually guarantee that any bent brads stay inside the material.

[Thomas Canfield]

I often use a little cut-off wheel on Dremel to cut the nail if it is not a finishing problem. Otherwise best to pull the little nail through. I use end nippers, but the suggestion to file down sharp edge is good. May need to pick up another tool.

[Lee Schierer]

I find that the brads will often follow the grain of the wood where there is a significant difference in hardness between the light and dark grain areas.

[Tom M King]

I use end cutting nippers, and a thin putty knife for a backer, and pull them through. You have to be careful not to squeeze the nippers hard enough to cut the nail in two. Don't try to pull a lot with each roll of the nippers. Taking small bites leaves the least possible damage.

[al heitz]

Similar but different ........ I use a pair of side cutters: grip as close to the wood as possible and roll the nail/braid out. Grip just tight enough to grasp the nail.

[Andrew Seemann]

If I have one I can't get out, especially if the nippers cut it while pulling, I drive the little stub end into the wood with a nail set and fill the hole. Then it just looks like the rest of the filled nail holes.

[lowell holmes]

Maybe a pair of cutters would help.
Check Lowes or Home Depot.

[Steve Jenkins]

I agree with Johnny. If you look at the tip of the nails the chisel point will almost always cause it to deflect left or right if it reflects.

Did the nail happen to bend sideways, perpendicular to the direction of the nail gun. That's usually the case. Holding the nailer perpendicular to your edge will usually guarantee that any bent brads stay inside the material.

[Ellen Benkin]

Some good suggestions here. Thanks all. This time I used Andrew's suggestion and drove the bent end into the wood and filled the dent it made. Next time I may try using "dull" nippers and rolling them against a putty knife protecting the wood. If all goes well, there won't be a next time.

[Ted Reischl]

If all goes well, there won't be a next time.

Only if you never use a nail gun again. Or for that matter any hammer at all. These things are inevitable.

[Andrew Seemann]

Only if you never use a nail gun again. Or for that matter any hammer at all. These things are inevitable.

I agree. I had one where I shot a nail in, it hit an unseen knot, and it poked out 90 degrees from the direction that it went in.

[Jeff Davies]

On burying nails--particularly the ones that bulge the surface , but do not actually shine though, The drive pin of the pneumatic nailer works really well. Just make sure the gun is unloaded--that means remove the clip remnant, release the follower, and fire two shots in the air to insure that it's empty and there is not a nail hung up. I watched one guy fail the last part and was burying a bulge in a nailing strip --supporting it with his left hand--you know, the hand with the nail driven right through his index finger a second later.

[Jeff Davies]

Not meaning to be a 'topper', I had one curl out of some second growth ash INTO my thumb ..and kept curling so that I was hooked -really hooked , Had a hell of a time getting loose with one hand attached to a cabinet trying to get a cutter in between. ended up using a loose hacksaw blade.