The nail puller is almost always present in our construction inventory, and it is rarely purchased as a separate tool, it is much more convenient when it is included with its constant partners - a hammer or crowbar.
The design and purpose of the nail puller
There is no person who would perfectly drive nails into any surface without a single mistake. The percentage of mistakes made, of course, depends on the experience of the employee, but it never drops to zero. Therefore, you cannot do without a nailer at the construction site. In addition, quite often it is not required during the construction process, but already for the destruction of, for example, a wooden building. Many burn the remnants of rotten buildings and use ash, but they will spoil all the properties in it, so they first eliminate them.
It is not always easy to reach the nail with small nippers, especially if the material is quite strong and the nail is long. Here school physics and the law of levers come to the rescue. Even the most stubborn nail can be reached without special efforts if you have long lever with a strong grip at the end. From here, it is easy to guess about the construction of the nailer, which is quite simple. A properly pointed end of the gripper will help pry even the deepest nail in.
In general, our tool looks like this: a long handle, at the end of which there is a bend, ending in a flattened forked tip with a slot. The length of the tool depends on the severity of the tasks that it can perform; this is the very length of the lever that is directly related to the effort expended in pulling out the nail. The pointed end easily crawls under the head of the nail, which may not even protrude above the surface of the material. The slot firmly grabs the head, and the bend as a stop allows you to smoothly shift the center of gravity of the tool slightly back so that the pointed end rises, dragging the nail along with it.
Thus, without unnecessary sudden movements and universal efforts, you will get any unsuccessful or unwanted fasteners. We have already said that most often we can find a nailer as an additional head on a hammer. For most household work, this is quite enough, and it is convenient, right at the time of hammering a nail, it can be removed. The length of the hammer handle is sufficient as a lever. But for more serious work, loaders and carpenters always have individual tool, and made of high-strength materials. A nailer is often used not only for pulling nails, especially if it is highly durable.
Titanium nailer - how to buy a good tool?
Looking at the design, it seems that choosing such a tool is as easy as shelling pears. But if you experienced master, then you will be very demanding. In addition, the assortment of a seemingly monotonous device is quite wide. For example, only in length you can expect to find a purchase from 32 cm to 1 m, the weight can go up to 4 kg, although the lightest options will only pull 0.5 kg. The material for manufacturing is also different, most often it is high-carbon steel, but the titanium nail puller is considered the leader in strength.
When choosing a tool, it is still important to look at some parameters. First, pay attention to the tip immediately... It should be reasonably flat, sharp and strong. Sometimes from durable material they make exclusively the tip, and everything else is made of cheaper metal, or even completely made of wood. It happens that the tip is protected by coatings, paint and varnish or anti-corrosion. Yes, over time, it will wear off on numerous nail heads, but this will still extend the service life, preventing at least at the first stages of rusting and crumbling.
Next, we choose the length and weight. If you are set for a large amount of work, for example, or windows, dismantling large furniture and similar operations, then do not hesitate to take a nail puller about 1 m long. If your plans are limited to parsing boxes, repairing benches and other little things, then an option of 30-40 cm is quite suitable.
And the weight should be chosen small, although it is responsible for the efforts made. That is, the greater the weight of the tool, the less effort you need to make to get the nail. But do not forget that it is up to you personally to carry and deftly wield a heavy tool, which means that the chance of getting tired quickly is quite high. So you have to choose the best option to make moderate effort to work, and that the tool itself is effective but not heavy. A weight of 1 kg is considered just right for these criteria.
Tool selection includes an assessment of the material, the workmanship of the tip, and the arm length and weight of the entire fixture.
We create a homemade version
For those who are particularly skilled, we offer a way to independently make a set of the most commonly used types of nail pullers.
How to make a nail puller with your own hands - a step by step diagram
Step 1: blank the nozzle
To do this, you will need steel wires of different diameters, for the smallest nails, 0.5 mm is enough, but for hard work you can even take fittings. The tip should be processed first. To do this, flatten the end with a hammer on the anvil (for reinforcement, you should not flatten, you just have to cut the material to the desired sharpness, you can do it on an emery wheel). Next, use an ordinary hacksaw for metal to saw through a slot of moderate depth. Too long will force us to drive a nail deep into it, and this is not necessary at all, extra work.
Step 2: processing the nozzle
Now you should take a file and process the edges to remove irregularities, notches and other defects that will certainly form when working with metal. Next we have to bend this nozzle, try to do it in two steps. First, the thick part of the wire is slightly bent, which is located before the transition to the flattened one. And next to it, the part that is closer to the area where the work will be carried out also bends.
Many also manage to harden such a workpiece, if you have the opportunity, and you are sure that the wire material allows you to do this, do not bypass this idea. Now go over with a file and sandpaper, and then polishing paste all over the tip, it is almost ready, so we shine it. Thus, the entire set of tips is made, according to your taste and whim, if you want to have a nail puller for almost every size of the cap.
Step 3: Use
Now it remains to fit the resulting tip on the handle, if any. But do not despair if you cannot find a reliable handle, you can attach it to an existing tool, for example, to the same hammer. You can increase the value of the lever by placing a block under the tool after the head of the nail is in the slot. Of course, the work will not be instant, but you will achieve the effect. Since there is no huge lever, it will sometimes be difficult to get the nail completely, but, having freed it in half, it is easy to finish the work even with pliers, it will take a minimum of effort.
This building tool is rather anti-building. The fact is that they do not build with the help of nail pullers, but break them. It is intended primarily for disassembling non-removable connections wooden structures made with nails. At the same time, other dismantling works can be performed with the help of a nail puller: beating off plaster, dismantling brick walls and much more.
Nail riders are the most different designs but they all have common feature... At least one of their ends has a flattened area in the form of a narrow blade with an expanding slot. When pulling the nails into this slot, the top part protruding nail and using the nail pull as a lever, resting on the head of the nail, it is easy to pull it out. V building stores you can find a very wide variety of nailers and we want to tell you about all of them.
Types of nailers
Crowbar clipper
This tool is a classic nailer tool. It is made entirely of steel. Structurally, it is a piece of steel rod, the ends of which are bent in different directions, and one of them or both are flattened and slots are made in them for pulling out nails. The length of the scrap nail puller can be either small in length - 40 cm, or very significant - up to 1.5 meters. Accordingly, the longer the nail puller, the thicker and stronger it is.
Previously, these tools were usually made independently from scrap materials. Usually, for these purposes, various shafts from mechanisms and machines were used. If you see such a homemade nail puller, take it without hesitation. The fact is that this is a truly eternal tool due to the very high strength properties of the material used. All the same, the shafts are made of high-strength steel. They used to make nail drivers, usually familiar from factories that had access to powerful presses, or in forges that can be found in the vastness of Russia at the present time.
Those crowbars - nail pullers, which are now sold in stores, are certainly worse. This is primarily due to the fact that standard rolled metal products are used for their production. At present, for the production of scrap - nail pullers, reinforcement, a round bar or a hexagonal bar with a diameter of 10 mm to 25 mm is used. Despite the fact that some manufacturers still subject the ends to quenching, this tool it wears out quickly and it is easy to bend it if you try to break a powerful building structure.
As an example, I will give my own experience - as a result of using a small modern nailer the slot was developed to such a state that the heads of the nails in it simply ceased to hold for two days. And this is in view of what I pulled with it from wood floor only about 1500 nails 30 mm long (tore off the old fiberboard).
Slightly stronger than reinforcement nail pullers, but they can very quickly rub calluses on your hands if you do not wrap the handle with electrical tape, for example. Round bar and hex bar nailers are approximately equal in strength. Checking the strength of the nailer is easy enough. Take a nail approximately 120 - 150 mm long and use the tip to scratch the working part of the tool (slotted spatula). If you get a scratch, and even deep, do not take this nail puller. There will be little sense from it. 
Coming up with this design manufacturers primarily cared about giving the tool versatility. So to speak, two instruments in one. Structurally, this is a classic hammer, usually with a rounded head, the sharp part of which is made in the form of a working part of a nailer. On the one hand, of course, this is convenient, especially if you are sitting on the top of the roof, hammering in nails and it was necessary to pull out one nail, which bent from an unsuccessful blow.
At the same time, it is inconvenient to use a nailer hammer as a dismantling tool. It is not always possible to use it to crawl under the head of the nail, and it also has a weaker handle - made of wood, and the lever is much shorter than that of a crowbar - a nail puller.
Forged tool steel is usually used as the material for the metal part of this type of hammer, which is usually superior in strength to the material of modern classical nail pullers. On sale you can also find a tool of this type completely made of metal with an ergonomic rubberized handle. Hammers - nailers are usually used when performing plumbing and carpentry work.
As a recommendation, we advise you to have in your set of tools three types of nail puller: a hammer - a nail puller, a small classic nail puller 40-50 cm long and a powerful crowbar - a nail puller with a length of at least 90 cm. The hammer can be used in construction works, when you need to pull out one or several unsuccessfully hammered nails, using a small nail puller it is convenient to pull out the upholstery nails and remove the cladding, but a large tool will be needed when dismantling powerful building structures pulling out large nails or staples, and dismantling brickwork.
To drive in a nail, special experience is not required, every developer can cope with this task, another thing is to pull out the hammered nail correctly. If the hat is flush with the surface, then it is recommended to know some of the intricacies of this work. And a lot depends on which tool you choose when pulling out nails. It is best to use a titanium nailer for this purpose, which will handle nails best.
The purpose of the nail puller
There were times when wooden nails, for this, they first drilled holes in the boards that fit in diameter, and only after that they connected the structural parts in a similar simple way. Such nails were called dowels. However, the pin could not be pulled out. And today these products have been replaced with metal fasteners that have wide caps. When making wood products, it is often necessary to pull out incorrectly hammered nails.
It is easy to pick them up with a jerk - special tool with a flattened end, where there is a wedge-shaped slot, which is convenient for gripping a nail. After picking up, it is also necessary to pull out the fasteners that are tightly compressed by the wood fibers or are jammed in concrete panel so a forged nailer should be used. The effort of the lever helps, so all nailers are made quite long, and near the hook there is a bend, which acts as a support. Great importance also has material, so tools for pulling out nails are often made hot.
Nailer hammers function as an ordinary carpenter's hammer or act as a nailer. Such a tool will help both hammer in the nail and easily remove the unnecessary one if it is installed incorrectly. Today there are similar hammers with different handles: wooden, metal, rubberized, fiberglass.
Thus, the purpose of the manual nailer is to pull the nails out. And the area of its use is quite large. With it, you can gently and easily pull the nail out of the floor or baseboard. Regardless of the description of the nail puller, it is used when disassembling various buildings, wooden structures, boxes and containers. The nail puller is irreplaceable tool for movers, carpenters, other technical workers and private developers at home.
In addition to the main function that the nail puller performs, its other functions are also known: pulling out nails using a flattened end with a slot, breaking asphalt, ice and frozen soil, lifting various objects, opening boxes and other surfaces fastened with nails using a pointed end. The one-piece profile, which the nail puller is equipped with, successfully allows the dismantling of building materials.
Nail puller design
The nailer is a lever-wedge device manual type for pulling out nails driven into the material. A nail puller is produced in the form independent tool or a tool that is combined with tools such as a crowbar or a hammer, as in the photo of the nailer.
The nailer is a curved metal wedge, which is divided in two by a working groove, which is intended for the process of gripping and holding during the procedure of pulling the nail out of the “head” from the material. The action of the nailer is based on the action of the wedge on the surface - the fastener and the material into which the fastener is hammered, and on the principle of a lever when pulling out the nail. The principle of a lever has been used by man since ancient times, when it was necessary to break off a piece of stone, to raise a heavy object, which required remarkable efforts.
This construction tool at one end has a curved flattened platform with a slot that expands, and on the other there is a straight pointed stake. The other end is often simply flattened and sharpened. Depending on the requirements for the tool, the nailer can be different sizes... The price of the nailers on the market also varies. The length of the nail pullers ranges from 320 to 1000 millimeters, and the weight is 0.6 to 4 kilograms. Selecting the size of this construction tool depends directly on the size of the nails with which he will work.
Most hammers that are equipped with additional function a pull-out for nails, equipped with a rubber handle, thanks to which they are clamped in the palm of the hand, like a glove. To increase the strength of the nailer, heat treatment of high carbon steel is also used, which is a common tool material. There are also nail pullers with a wood handle and an iron tip. But it is not recommended to get carried away with a variety of form factors, the main thing in a nail extraction tool is the flat surface of the blade, which is brought under the cap, and the level of its strength.
Making a nail puller with your own hands
Any owner needs a good nail puller as much as a saw, hammer or ax. Therefore, it is useful to know how to make a nailer at home. We suggest you make a set of three nail pullers that will help you pull out any nails and fasteners.
A nailer for pulling small nails is best made of steel with a high carbon content so that the working part can be hardened. To do this, take steel wire 0.5 mm thick, then straighten it on the anvil and flatten the working end slightly.
Make a shallow cut with a hacksaw along the axis, process the edges of the cut with a file. Bend the tip of the tool in a vise. It is customary to make a bend in two steps: first in a place where the workpiece is thicker, and then closer to the working end. Remove small dents from the vice with a file. Then sand the working part of the tool and, if possible, polish with a polishing paste.
It remains to complete hardening with a future vacation. After this manipulation, grind the working part of the tool again and polish. Place the resulting workpiece on the handle. A DIY nail puller for small nails is ready!
It is customary to make nail pullers for large and medium nails from reinforcing steel. Just remember that you do not need to flatten the working part. Carry out all rough processing on an emery wheel.
Handles for such nailers are not required. To pull out a long nail with an ordinary nail, you have to put various subjects, for example, a piece of board, which is not very convenient. Upgrade your nailer by welding an extension piece 6 centimeters from the work piece.
Using a homemade nailer
Now you should learn how to properly use a home-made nailer. This tool is easy to use. Depending on the diameter of the nail, you need to pick up an appropriate home-made nailer from the set and knock out the wedge part of the tool with a hammer under the head.
When the nail enters the slot of the working part, move the handle towards the wood - the nail will come out a little from the hole. Place a short block to rest against. After that, the nail will come out a little more. Now you can grab his hat with pliers.
To "uproot" nails from planks and wooden blocks, a hook pry bar or pliers are usually used. However, these are not the only tools that can be used in this case. For example, you can make a do-it-yourself device from a half-inch pipe and pieces of an old file that will cope with the task much faster.
The main stages of work
To make this homemade product, you will need a half-inch piece steel pipe, the edge of which (about 60–70 mm) needs to be slightly flattened with a heavy hammer or sledgehammer so that it becomes flat. Then we start assembling the second part of the homemade product.
To do this, you need a piece of an old Soviet file (without the tail), the edge of which must be grinded under slight angle... Using a grinder, cut out a rectangular piece. In the flattened part of a half-inch pipe, at a distance of 30–35 mm from the edge, we drill one through hole with a diameter of 10 mm.
Steel plate using angled grinder cut out two identical parts of a suitable shape. They need to be filed to remove burrs and sanded. We drill holes with a diameter of 10 mm in the plates.
Fixture assembly process
The "tongue" cut from the file is welded to the flattened part of the handle at a right angle. Then, two plates are attached to the half-inch pipe using a bolt and an M10 nut. Further, on one side of the plates, a blade is welded, cut out by a grinder from a file, which must coincide in level with the previously welded "tongue".
With damaged caps that cannot be unscrewed. Due to its shape and strength, it can also be used for disassembling wooden, plastic and other structures, which can be disconnected as a result of the applied force.
How the nail puller works
The tool can have different shape, but regardless of the variety, it always has the same working part. It is a flat wedge that resembles a spatula with a bifurcated tip. The longitudinal slot on it has a special groove that allows you to grip the head of a nail or screw. Subsequently, the tool is used as a lever for pulling out the fastener.
Usually the tool is made of carbon steel. It has a high hardness. Also on sale you can find cheaper nailers made of weak alloys, which are of little use for dismantling. To identify low-quality tools, it is enough to scratch their working part using the point of a nail. Have good tool the steel is hard so there is no scratch. If a bad nailer is tested, then a mark will appear on it directly in the metal, and not just on the paint.
Where nail pullers are used
The need to pull out nails may be required in various circumstances. This tool is used by people of dozens of professions. First of all, it is necessary for builders, as well as finishers who perform renovation work... It is convenient to use a nail puller to tear off old floorboards, tear off a wall paneling, and dismantle a slate roof. The need for it also arises during disassembly wooden fences... Nail pullers are much more compact than crowbars, so they can be used to neatly demolish brickwork. Thanks to the flat spatula, it is convenient to push them under the brick, and using the lever to tear it off the wall.
Also, the tool is used by loaders and couriers involved in the delivery of goods in a crate. Due to its increased strength, this device can be quite used for striking when performing dismantling work. Of course, a hammer makes everything much more convenient, but when the latter is not at hand, then it is quite possible to do with a nail puller.
Varieties of nail pullers
This is a very popular tool for which there are no analogues in performing certain types of dismantling works, therefore dozens of well-known trade marks... Each of them strives to improve the design, making it more convenient for performing certain tasks. In this regard, there are several very successful varieties of this tool that are used everywhere. Conventionally, they can be divided into ordinary nail pullers and combined with other types of tools.
Regular
Such a tool is intended solely for pulling nails off. He has small size up to 40 cm. At its end, an ordinary handle with an overlay is provided, similar to that found on hammers. This is a relatively lightweight nailer, allowing you to work mostly with fasteners only. He is quite capable of tearing off floorboards or disassembling wooden crates. Purely nail pullers are not very popular, since for a similar price you can purchase a more advanced tool that can perform at least one more additional function.
There are also more compact fixtures designed for working with small nails, which are usually used in furniture assembly, as well as hammering small boxes. They have the size of an ordinary large, with the exception that they are equipped with a slotted blade at the end. With such a device, fasteners can be removed, creating minimal damage to the surface from which they are pulled out. This tool is also suitable for dismantling push pins that are firmly embedded in wood. They can also rip off the clips that hold the interior plastic parts of the car interior.
Combined
Such a nailer combines one or more additional tools:
- Ticks.
- Crowbar.
Nail pullers compatible with crowbar have dimensions up to 150 cm. At their second end there is a flat blade or a pointed wedge. It is a versatile demolition tool that is easiest to work with as it has a large leverage, which reduces the stress when pulling out nails. With a similar device, it is good to dismantle floorboards, benches, wooden buildings as well as roof battens. In addition, the tool can be used as an ordinary scrap. Its bifurcated shoulder blade is rather large, therefore it is not able to grasp small carnations with a small diameter cap. It will not work even if it is necessary to carefully disassemble small structures, the components of which must be kept intact, preventing the appearance of dents on the wood.
They are very popular hammers, they have a nail puller on the part opposite to the striker. They have a small leverage, so it is rather difficult to pull out fasteners using such a device. Moreover, such designs also have advantages. First of all, they are compact and can fit in a toolbox. Hammers can handle small nails quite well, but for long ones the lever is too short. The bulk of the load rests on the hammer handle, which is usually made of wood. Overdoing it and pushing too hard can easily break it. If you plan to make a lot of effort, then it is better to choose an all-metal hammer with a nailer. Such a tool can easily survive a heavy load, and besides that, it will not be damaged if the handle is lengthened. metal pipe to increase the leverage. Typically, these hammers are used when they need to be used to drive nails. If one of them bends, then it can be immediately removed to hammer the other.
Chisel clippers
A highly specialized tool for beekeepers. It is used for processing and cleaning old frames. With its help, small carnations are extracted, and the frame strips are cleaned from the old foundation with a chisel. Also on sale there are reinforced chisels, which, in addition to performing the current two functions, also work as a hammer. This makes them versatile for bee frame repair and more demanding tasks. It should be noted that such nail puller although it is a chisel, it is not sharp enough to carry out woodcarving, like carpentry counterparts.
Meet pincers, which in themselves are used to extract nails. At the same time, on one of their handle there is a flat blade with a slot for nails, copying the shape of a nail puller. Such a device cannot cope with large fasteners, but it is quite useful for disassembling small wooden boxes, which are usually used for the transport of vegetables and fruits.
Nailers deserve special attention mounts... This is a practically universal dismantling tool that allows you to perform a large list of works. Typically, these devices are 4 in 1. They can be used as a nailer, pry bar, hammer and tool for bending metal rods. This tool often costs a lot more than all the other varieties. At the same time, it cannot compete with the power with a crowbar nail.
How to use a nailer
Often using a nail puller, you have to deal with strong hammered in nails, the cap of which is deepened into the surface. In this case, there is no way to catch on. To solve this problem, you need to keep auxiliary tools on hand. First of all, this is a hammer, or pliers.
If a structure is being dismantled, in which there is access to the back side, where the nail tip is located, then it is worth checking if it is protruding. If the pointed part sticks out, then you need to hit it with a hammer, after which the hat will come out and you can pull it out. Sometimes the fasteners on the back are bent to increase reliability. In this case, it must be unbent. Pliers or pliers are useful for this. After alignment, hit on the sharp side so that the cap comes out a little.
In the case of dismantling surfaces in which the tip does not protrude from the back side, or there is no access to it, the work will have to be done more roughly. First, you need to place the nailer blade against the head, pointing it at an angle of 30 degrees. By hitting the back of the nail with a hammer, it must be driven into the surface until the head engages. The tool is then used as a lever and pulls out the nail as usual. This is a fail-safe method, but it spoils the boards, which is not always acceptable if you plan to use them in the future.
When the nail is pulled with great force, the back of the nailer cuts into the wood, leaving a deep indentation there. The same occurs when dismantling the mount on slate roof... To avoid this effect, it is worth placing a small soft wooden plank under the tool stop. She will take a deformation effect on herself, distributing the load over larger area so the dent will not appear.