The water content of a piece of wood can be measured with the use of an instrument called a hygrostat. It has two sharp probes which penetrate the wood and measure the electrical resistance between the two probes. This is translated into % of saturation of the wood. 100% would be dripping wet ...
Plastic nails -- now there's an idea to avoid rust marks on fences.A couple of years ago (1979) I stumbled into Raptor Plastic Nails made in Texas and designed for just about every type of project except structural framing. They were all made to be used with pneumatic nailers. I wanted to test ...
You know how I like to show you new and innovative tools. Here is a really new one, a hoseless pneumatic finishing nailer! No I am not talking about the fuel cell driven nailers, this one really runs on air.Now how can you have an air driven pneumatic nailer without a hose and compressor? Well...
How about some nailing tips.If you are putting several nails in the end of the board, do not line them up on the same grain line. The accumulative effect of forcing their way through the wood will certainly split the wood. Stagger them so that each is on a different grain line and you have less...
Maureen in Abbotsford BC has nail heads popping out of her walls a bit all over the house. This is unfortunately so common that the term "nail popping" is used to refer to nail heads showing up in drywall. The problem is that there is a space between the drywall and the stud, and when someone l...
It is interesting that as nails become more and more modern, they begin to resemble the original hand made spikes. Of the two little finishing brads in my hand, the one on the left is a hand cut one from yesteryear and the one on the right is a finishing nail from a nailing gun rack. To wor...
Most nail pops come from one of two basic causes: fiberglass holding the panel away from the stud, hence a gap between the stud and the panel; or shrinking wood.Assure contact between the panel and the stud at the moment the nail or screw is driven home and you avoid the first problem.The seco...
The construction industry uses a lot of power nailers today. Most of these are pneumatic simply because driving a nail in with a single blow requires a tremendous amount of power. A hammer delivers much less power, which means hitting the nail many times to get the same job done. But power...
We had fun taking a TV tour of the Stanley Bostitch testing facility to see just how they test tools for long term endurance, power and reliability.Then we took a closer look at their new cordless roofing nailer. This is quite a technological development -- it is the first nailer that runs o...
A viewer sent in the simple idea of pushing finishing nails through a piece of corrugated cardboard to hold them steady while you come down with the hammer. That means that you don't come down with that hammer on your fingers. They you simply pull the cardboard up and finish driving the nail.Le...
