A hand nail puller made from a half inch pipe and an old file. A nail puller is a narrow-profile tool with different ways of using What is better to make a nail puller
A 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 bundled with its constant partners - a hammer or crowbar.
The design and purpose of the nail puller
There is no person who would ideally drive nails into any surface without a single mistake. The percentage of mistakes made, of course, depends on the experience of the worker, but never drops to zero. Therefore, one cannot do without a nail puller on a construction site. In addition, quite often it is required not during the construction process, but already for the destruction of, for example, a wooden building. Many people burn the remains of a rotten building and use ashes, but all properties will be spoiled in it, so they are first eliminated.
It is not always easy to get a nail with small wire cutters, 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 obtained without special efforts if you have a long lever with a strong grip on the end. From here it is easy to guess about the design of the nail puller, which is quite simple. A properly pointed end of the grip will help pry even the most deeply driven nail.
In general, our tool looks something like this: a long handle, at the end of which there is a bend, ending with 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 length of the lever, which is directly related to the effort expended on pulling out the nail. The pointed end easily crawls under the nail head, 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 a little back so that the pointed end rises, dragging the nail 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 meet a nail puller as an additional head on a hammer. For most chores, this is quite enough, and it’s convenient, you can remove it immediately at the time of driving a nail. The length of the hammer handle is enough as a lever. But for more serious work loaders and carpenters always have individual tool, and from high-strength materials. A nail puller is often used not only for pulling nails, especially if it is highly durable.
Titanium nail puller - 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 your approach. In addition, the assortment of seemingly monotonous devices is quite wide. For example, only in length you can expect to find a purchase from 32 cm to 1 m, weight can reach 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, immediately pay attention to the tip. It should be fairly flat, sharp and strong. Sometimes from durable material they make only the tip, and everything else is made of cheaper metal, or even wood. It happens that the tip is protected by coatings, paintwork or anti-corrosion. Yes, over time, it will be erased on numerous nail heads, but it will still extend the service life, preventing rust and spillage at least at first.
Next, select the length and weight. If you are in the mood for a large amount of work, for example, or windows, dismantling large-sized furniture and similar operations, then do not hesitate to take a nail puller about 1 m long. If your plans are limited to dismantling boxes, repairing benches and other trifles, then the 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 will 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 to get tired quickly is quite high. So you have to choose best option to make moderate effort for the job, and that the tool itself is efficient but not heavy. A weight of 1 kg is considered just right for these criteria.
The choice of tool includes an assessment of the material, workmanship of the tip, as well as the length of the lever and the 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: Nozzle preparation
This will require steel wires. different diameter, for the smallest nails, 0.5 mm is enough, but for heavy work you can even take the armature. The tip must 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, with a regular hacksaw for metal, cut 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: Handling the nozzle
Now you should take a needle file and process the edges to remove bumps, 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 after it, the part that is closer to the area, which will be carried out, bends down.
Many also manage to harden such a workpiece, if you have such an opportunity, and you are sure that the wire material allows you to do this, do not bypass this idea. Now go with a file and sandpaper, and then with polishing paste all over the tip, it is almost ready, so we are polishing 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 hat size.
Step 3: Use
Now it remains to attach the resulting tip to the handle, if any. But do not despair, if there is no 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 bar under the tool after the nail head is in the slot. Of course, the work will not be instantaneous, but you will achieve the effect. Since there is no huge lever, sometimes it will be difficult to get the nail completely, but, having pulled it out halfway, it is easy to finish the job even with pliers, it will take a minimum of effort.
To drive in a nail, no special experience is required, every developer can cope with this task, another thing is to correctly pull out a hammered nail. If the hat is flush with the surface, then it is recommended to know some of the subtleties of this work. And a lot depends on pulling out nails on which tool you choose. It is best to use a titanium nail puller for this purpose, which will handle the nails best.
Purpose of the nail puller
There were times when it was widely used wooden nails, for this, they first drilled holes in the boards that were suitable in diameter, and after that they connected the structural parts in a similar simple way. Such nails were called pins. However, the pin could not be pulled out. And today these products have been replaced with metal fasteners that have wide hats. In the manufacture of wood products, it often becomes necessary to pull out improperly hammered nails.
They are easy to pick up with a puller - special tool with a flattened end, where there is a wedge-shaped slot, which is convenient for gripping the nail. After hooking, you also need to pull out the fastener, which is tightly compressed by the fibers of the tree or wedged in the concrete panel, so a forged nail puller should be used. The leverage helps, so all nail pullers are made quite long, and near the toe there is a bend that acts as a support. Great importance it also has material, so tools for pulling nails are often made hardened.
Claw hammers perform the functions of an ordinary carpenter's hammer or act as a nail puller. Such a tool will help to hammer in a nail, and easily remove an unnecessary one if it is installed incorrectly. Today there are similar hammers with different handles: wooden, metal, rubberized, fiberglass.
Thus, the purpose of a manual nail puller is to pull out nails. And the scope 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 dismantling various buildings, wooden structures, boxes and containers. The nail puller is an indispensable tool for movers, carpenters, other technical workers and home builders.
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 solid profile, which is equipped with a nail puller, successfully allows you to dismantle building materials.
Nail puller design
The nail puller is a lever-wedge hand-held device for pulling out nails driven into the material. A nail puller is produced in the form of an independent tool or a tool that is combined with tools such as a crowbar or a hammer, as in the photo of the nail pullers.
A nail puller is a curved metal wedge, which is divided in two by a working groove, which is designed for the process of capturing and holding when pulling a nail by the “hat” from the material. The action of the nailer is based on the action of the wedge on the surface - fastener and the material into which the fastener is hammered, and on the principle of a lever when pulling out a nail. The principle of the lever has been used by man since ancient times, when it was necessary to break off a piece of stone, lift a heavy object, which required remarkable efforts.
This building tool at one end has a curved flattened platform with a slot that expands, and at the other there is a straight pointed stake. The second end is often simply flattened and pointed. Depending on the requirements for the tool, the nail puller can be different sizes. The price of nail pullers on the market also varies. The length of the nail pullers ranges from 320 - 1000 millimeters, and the weight is 0.6 - 4 kilograms. The choice of the size of this construction tool depends directly on the size of the nails with which it will work.
Most hammers that are equipped additional function pullers for nails, are equipped with a rubber handle, thanks to which they are clamped in the palm of your hand, like a glove. For increased strength of nail pullers, high heat treatment is also used. carbon steel, which is a common instrumental 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, in a tool for extracting nails, the main thing is the flat surface of the blade, which is brought under the cap, and its level of strength.
Making a nail puller with your own hands
Any owner needs a good nail puller no less than a saw, a hammer or an ax. Therefore, it is useful to know how to make a nail puller at home. We suggest you make a set of three nail pullers that will help you pull out any nails and fasteners.
A nail puller for pulling out small nails is best made of steel with great content carbon so that its working part can be hardened. To do this, take a steel wire 0.5 mm thick, then straighten it on the anvil and flatten the working end a little.
Make a shallow cut with a hacksaw along the axis, process the edges of the cut with a needle file. Bend the working part 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 vise with a file. Then sand the working part of the tool and, if possible, polish with a polishing paste.
It remains to harden with a future vacation. After this manipulation, grind the working part of the tool again and polish it. Attach the resulting workpiece to the handle. Do-it-yourself nail puller for small nails is ready!
Nail pullers for large and medium nails are usually made of reinforcing steel. Just remember that the working part does not need to be flattened. Preliminary carry out all rough processing on an emery wheel.
Handles are not required for such nail pullers. To pull out a long nail with an ordinary nail puller, you have to put it under its base various items, for example, a piece of board, which is not very convenient. Improve your nail puller by welding an additional part at a distance of 6 centimeters from the working one.
Using a homemade nail puller
Now you should learn how to properly use a homemade nail puller. Using this tool is quite simple. Depending on the diameter of the nail, you need to select the appropriate home-made nail puller from the set and knock out the pre-wedge part of the tool with a hammer under the hat.
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 low block to support it. After that, the nail will come out a little more. Now you can grab onto his hat with pliers.
With damaged hats that cannot be unscrewed. Due to its shape and strength, it can also be used for dismantling wooden, plastic and other structures that can be separated as a result of the applied force.
How a nail puller works
The tool may have different shape, but regardless of the variety, it always has the same working part. It is a flat wedge, shaped like a spatula with a forked tip. The longitudinal slot on it has a special groove that allows you to capture 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 high hardness. Also on sale you can find cheaper nail pullers made from weak alloys, which are of little use for dismantling works. To identify low-quality tools, it is enough to scratch their working part using the tip of a nail. At good tool steel is hard, so scratches do not form. If a bad nail puller is tested, then a mark will appear on it directly in the metal, and not just on the paint.
Where are nailers used?
The need to pull out nails may be required in various circumstances. Such a tool is used by people of dozens of professions. First of all, it is necessary for builders, as well as for finishers who perform repair work. It is convenient to tear off old floorboards with a nail puller, tear off wall lining, dismantle the roof from slate. The need for it arises during disassembly wooden fences. Nail pullers are much more compact than crowbars, so they can be used for accurate demolition brickwork. Thanks to a flat spatula, it is convenient to push them under the brick, and using a lever to tear it off the wall.
Also, the tool is used by loaders and couriers involved in the delivery of goods in the crate. Thanks to increased strength this device can be quite used for striking during dismantling. Of course, a hammer makes everything much more convenient, but when the latter is not at hand, it is quite possible to get by with a nail puller.
Varieties of nail pullers
This is a highly demanded tool, for which there are no analogues in the performance of certain types of dismantling work, therefore dozens of well-known trademarks. Each of them strive 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 those combined with other types of tools.
Ordinary
Such a tool is intended solely for tearing nails. 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 light nail puller, allowing you to work mainly with fasteners. It is quite capable of tearing off floorboards or dismantling wooden boxes. Purely nail pullers are not very popular, since for a similar cost you can purchase a more advanced tool that can perform at least one more additional function.
There are also more compact devices designed to work with small nails, which are usually used in furniture assembly, as well as knocking together small boxes. They have the size of an ordinary large one, with the exception that they are equipped with a slotted spatula at the end. With the help of such a device, fasteners can be removed, creating minimal damage to the surface from which they break out. This tool is also suitable for dismantling push pins that are firmly embedded in wood. They can also rip off the clips holding the internal plastic elements car interior.
Combined
Such a nail puller combines one or more additional tools:
- Ticks.
- Mount.
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 construction and demolition tool and the easiest to work with because it has a large leverage, which reduces the load 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 forked shoulder blade is quite large, therefore it is not able to capture small carnations with a small diameter cap. It will not work if it is necessary to carefully disassemble small structures, the components of which must be kept intact, preventing the appearance of dents in the wood.
Enjoy great popularity hammers, they have a nail puller on the opposite side of the striker. They have a small leverage, so pulling out fasteners with such a device is quite difficult. At the same time, such structures also have advantages. First of all, they are compact and able to fit in a toolbox. Hammers can quite cope with tearing out small nails, but for long ones their leverage is too short. The bulk of the load falls on the hammer handle, which is usually made of wood. Overdone and pressing too hard, it is quite possible to break it. If you plan to make great efforts, then it is better to choose an all-metal hammer with a nail puller. Such a tool may well survive a large load, and besides this, it will not be damaged if the handle is lengthened. metal pipe to increase leverage. Typically, these hammers are used when they need to be used to drive nails. If one of them is bent, then it can be immediately removed to score the other.
Nail pullers-chisels
A highly specialized tool designed for beekeepers. It is used for processing and cleaning old frames. With its help, small carnations are removed, and the planks of the frame are cleaned from the old foundation with a chisel. Also on sale are reinforced chisels, which, in addition to performing the current two functions, also work like a hammer. This makes them versatile for repairs. bee frames and more serious tasks. It is worth noting that such nail puller although it is a chisel, it is not sharp enough to carry out woodcarving, like carpentry counterparts.
Meet ticks, which themselves are used to extract nails. At the same time, on one of their handles there is a flat spatula with a slot for studs, 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 to transport vegetables and fruits.
Nail pullers deserve special attention mounts. This is an almost 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 nail puller, pry bar, hammer and bending tool. metal rods. Often this device costs much more than all other varieties. However, it cannot compete with the power of a crowbar nail puller.
How to use a nail puller
Often, when using a nail puller, one has to deal with heavily hammered nails, the head of which is deepened into the surface. In this case, there is no way to get hooked. To solve this problem, you need to keep on hand auxiliary tools. First of all, it is a hammer, or pliers.
If a structure is being dismantled, in which there is access to the reverse side, where the tip of the nail is located, then it is worth checking if it protrudes. If the pointed part sticks out, then it is necessary to hit it with a hammer, after which the hat will come out and you can pull it out. Sometimes fasteners with reverse side bent for increased reliability. In this case, it needs to be unbent. For this, pliers or tongs are useful. After leveling, hit the sharp side so that the hat comes out a little.
In the case of dismantling surfaces in which the tip does not protrude from the back, or there is no access to it, the work will have to be done more roughly. First you need to put the spatula of the nail puller against the hat, directing it at an angle of 30 degrees. With a hammer blow on the back of the nail puller, it must be driven into the surface until the cap is hooked. After that, the tool is used as a lever and pulls out the nail as usual. This is a fail-safe method, but spoils the boards, which is not always acceptable if you plan to use them in the future.
When the nail is driven with great force, the back of the nail puller cuts into the wood, leaving a deep dent 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 stop of the tool. It will take the deformation effect on itself, distributing the load along larger area so no dent will appear.
The device of a nail puller is very simple and elementary, but at the same time, it is very useful and invaluable in the construction industry. So, with the help of this device, you can pull out or tear out nails or any other construction, fasteners. The nail puller design is used in several tools - it can be a nail hammer, a separate nail puller tool, pliers with a nail puller function, and so on. Also, a very useful and common is a crowbar nail puller, which we will consider in this article. You will find out what this tool is like, which one is better to pay attention to and buy a crowbar nail puller. About all this, in our article.
The device and use of a crowbar nail puller
The tool is usually a small and curved wedge made of metal, which is divided in two by a small groove. This groove, in turn, is necessary in order to capture, hold and tear out nails, screws and self-tapping screws, those parts that are driven into a wooden or any other surface. Due to the fact that the crowbar nail puller, as a rule, has a long arm, you can remove absolutely any nail or other fastener.
A crowbar nail puller is used almost everywhere where there is a need to extract nails. Most often, these are carpentry and roofing, construction and locksmith work, and so on, including household problem solving. Moreover, a crowbar-nail puller can be used not for its intended purpose. So, for example, it can be used when dismantling building structures, for dismantling wood products and frames, and so on.
Assortment of crowbars
To date, there are several varieties of tools of this kind on sale. So, the price of a nail puller will directly depend on what type of tool you choose. It can be an ordinary nail puller, which consists of a small handle, as well as a working part that has L-shape, and which is a broken blade for safely removing nails from the surface. This design will allow you to pick up and pull out nail heads from surfaces with the least possible effort.
A nail crowbar is a tool with a small wedge on one side. This wedge can be used as a dismantling tool various designs(either raising floorboards or breaking off wooden planks). On the other hand, the tool has a forked blade with which you can pull nails.
And, of course, the classic crowbar nail puller, which is a fairly heavy all-metal rod, which is pointed at one end. It is used in various cases - for chiselling ice or frozen soil, as well as any rocky soil, and so on. Among such tools, the most famous are the Gross nail crowbar, as well as Juco and TOPEX. At the same time, you can stop at any other model of the tool, knowing what you need to consider when buying.
In order to buy a nail puller, you need to know a few basic things. First of all, it is the material of the tool. Crowbar nail puller can be made of high-strength, tool steel. But, the most durable and high-quality model of a nail puller is considered to be a tool made of titanium. However, titanium nail crowbars are expensive, so tools are most often sold from tool steel. So, this material is quite stable under mechanical impact on it, it is practically not prone to deformation, even with strong impacts and impact on it. Here, pay attention to the presence of paintwork or anti-corrosion coating tool, which further prevents the formation of corrosion, rust, etc. on it.
Tool length is also important parameter. In the case when you have to open small wooden boxes, or you know in advance that you will work in a limited space, you should pay attention to short crowbars. So, a 600 mm crowbar, or one having a length of 300-400 mm, will be quite sufficient. This is enough to make enough effort. However, if you need to use scrap to open wooden floors, windows, door frames or any other structures, it is best to use long models of nail pullers with a length of 1m to 1.3m. This will allow you to work comfortably, and not bend too low while working.
And, of course, the weight of the tool - the heavier the scrap, the greater the destructive effect it will have on the material. Therefore, if you know for sure that you will have to exert tremendous force to dismantle a particular structure, you can safely stop at heavy crowbars-nail pullers. If you need accurate work with boards, boxes, etc., you should choose lightweight models of this tool.
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