Seriously, I cannot pound a *$%!#& nail!

blastoff99

blastoff99

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Dec 17, 2011
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#1
Ok, this is embarrassing, so I'll put it out there for all the world to see.

I have decent household skills. Can replace toilets and toilet guts and faucet washers; change out switches and outlets (including GFCI) and rewire dumb stuff like lamps and fans; I am a fine painter if a bit slow. I've hung storm doors and installed a range hood and mixed and poured concrete. But I can't pound a nail.

This is a problem, because right now I have lots of nails to pound. It's time to replace my interior window trim, which is 11/16" quarter round. It's primed and ready to go. I'm going to be nailing it into the edge of 11/16" plywood, and then the guy who is a magician in mud is going to come make the walls look pretty, then I'll be painting until the Apocalypse.

So today I thought I'd start with the easy piece, which is a trapezoid-shaped item that goes in the corner between my two living room windows. I don't have a nailer and don't intend to rent one, so I drilled some holes, lined it up, and started in with the hammer. I have bent more nails today than I can tell you, and my pretty board will now need some attention with spackle and primer before I can paint it.

What's worse is that I never did succeed in getting the board there. I gave up twice because it was a mess of bent nails and awfulness. So I thought I'd post to TBOT and ask my usual panel of experts what on earth I'm doing wrong to be so incompetent at pounding nails.

I'm not uncoordinated (can hit softball, golf ball - and ride a unicycle) but have never been able to pound a nail. It's mortifying. How do I learn, especially if I don't know what I'm doing wrong other than generally sucking?

Thanks.
 
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#6
Man, I worked as a carpenter summers between my first two years of high school.

(Yes, a 14 and 15 year old boy roofing and framing with an actual contractor 40-50 hours a week. Today that is probably seen as child labor. But I learned a ton and made more money than my buddies did asking if you want fries with that.)

Anyhooooo....

I can drive a nail in ANYTHING!


.....anything except quarter round. That stuff SUCKS! To this day, I leave monkey faces (dents in the shape of the hammer head) all over it, bend nails, dent and scratch the crap out of the trim. I HATE it.

On average I can land a 16 penny nail in 3 or 4 swings all day long. I can't sink a tack in quarter round to save my life.

Go rent the pneumatic nail gun. Once you're done nailing the stuff (about 10 seconds) use your fingertip to put a dab of caulk in the tiny hole. Done.
 
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#7
Thanks for trying to make me feel slightly better... but I'm not even doing the quarter-round yet. I thought I'd start with the easy piece. Ha.

Renting a finish nailer would be a better plan if I had the physical stamina to do more than one window in a day. You may have missed the bit where I mentioned I have a weird ailment that turns out to be two tumors in my head which can cause all my symptoms but somehow aren't (that's another story). So the plan is to kind of chip away at this as I can.

I know that if I do this the slow way I will certainly be touching up with spackle. And I do own a nail set, so theoretically that should help. I feel like I know *how* to do this... but I suck at it.
 
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#8
Most folks (including the one in the video above) hold a hammer wrong. You don't grab it in a death grip. You let it rock back and forth in your hand. Don't use your hand to drive the hammer into the nail. Use your hand to get the hammer in motion and just before the hammer hits the nail , relax your hand and let the hammer finish the job. As far as always hitting the nail , sorry , this just takes practice. Holding the hammer farther up the handle helps with this when you are just starting out. As you get better (I.E. more accurate) you can move your grip down the hammer.
BTW , this info is coming from someone that has been working construction for over 45 years. Good luck and happy hammering.:thumbsup:
Oh yeah , if you do become a member of the purple thumbnail club , straighten out a paper clip , hold it with a pair of pliers , get it red hot and burn a hole through your thumbnail to relieve the pressure.
 
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#9
sharkbait130 said:
Most folks (including the one in the video above) hold a hammer wrong. You don't grab it in a death grip. You let it rock back and forth in your hand. Don't use your hand to drive the hammer into the nail. Use your hand to get the hammer in motion and just before the hammer hits the nail , relax your hand and let the hammer finish the job. As far as always hitting the nail , sorry , this just takes practice. Holding the hammer farther up the handle helps with this when you are just starting out. As you get better (I.E. more accurate) you can move your grip down the hammer.
BTW , this info is coming from someone that has been working construction for over 45 years. Good luck and happy hammering.:thumbsup:
Oh yeah , if you do become a member of the purple thumbnail club , straighten out a paper clip , hold it with a pair of pliers , get it red hot and burn a hole through your thumbnail to relieve the pressure.
Click to expand...

All of this is true. Ask me how I know about the second part......
 
#10
If you have predrilled holes and are doing finish nails (I believe both of these to be true, but I've been fooled before) you can drive it the whole way with a nailset, which will probably either solve or aggravate your problem, depending on what your actual problem is (This one is kinda hard to solve by internet, unfortunately.) That is assuming that the predriled hole lets you get the nail in the trim without the hammer doing much, if anything. Going waaaaay back, you can also hold the nail with a pair of grooved pliers (not too tight) if smacking your fingers is either a problem or causing a "fear of" problem. Use cheap pliers, since you'll probably hit them.

I'm the weirdo who won't use a nailgun even if they are provided (obviously not a pro, but an amateur with wide-ranging experience, and I prefer hammers...)

For general naildriving, nothing like scrap lumber, a hammer, and a bunch of nails.
...until you nail it. :D
 
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#11
One of those cordless Ryobi brad nailers is about a $150 with a battery+charger, and it is probably worth it if you have a whole house worth of window trim to replace. The nail holes will also be small and easy to fill with painter's caulk. You will have a lot of caulking to do, and big nail holes can take two applications.
 
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#12
hondo4life said:
One of those cordless Ryobi brad nailers is about a $150 with a battery+charger, and it is probably worth it if you have a whole house worth of window trim to replace. The nail holes will also be small and easy to fill with painter's caulk. You will have a lot of caulking to do, and big nail holes can take two applications.
Click to expand...


Yeah I hear you but I'm trying not to spend any more money than I have to. And won't a nail gun potentially split the quarter round? Drilled holes would prevent that, at least. That's the other part of the reason I thought I'd do this the hard way. I didn't count on utter incompetence.
 
#13
blastoff99 said:
Yeah I hear you but I'm trying not to spend any more money than I have to. And won't a nail gun potentially split the quarter round? Drilled holes would prevent that, at least. That's the other part of the reason I thought I'd do this the hard way. I didn't count on utter incompetence.
Click to expand...

18 gauge brad nails won't split the quarter round; they are perfect for it. If you set the nail gun just right, you will sink the nails in just right so you won't have to go back and set them with a punch. Doing it the hard way is fine, though.
 
#15
How do you get to Carnegie Hall ? practice ,practice ,practice. Seriously, for trim work suck it up and get the air nailer, you'll be happier, the wife will be happier and you wont have to join the purple thumb club. Hondo4life is spot on. Sounds as if your hammering skills need some work so just get the nailer already, you'll be glad you did. Practice your hammering technique on some big 'ol 16 penny nails and work up to the trim nails
 
#16
I second the call for the nailer, either cordless or air driven. You can always sell it on CL and if you keep them clean and it's not 10 years after you bought it you can ask and usually get a fair bit of money for it. In fact, buy one used, finish your windows and then sell it for what you paid for it.
 
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#17
S-Bigbottom said:






:smug:
Click to expand...

I only watched the first video, but he's correct. Grab the handle toward the end and get a good relaxed swing.

Even if the nail bends, you can still hammer it in straight. As long as you hit the head of the nail horizontally, in the direction that it's bending. Practice on a bad piece of wood.

Edit: I don't like the technique in the third video. He's using his forearm, not his wrist to swing. This will lead to cramping up or "hammer shock".
 
#18
bluesfordan said:
I second the call for the nailer, either cordless or air driven. You can always sell it on CL and if you keep them clean and it's not 10 years after you bought it you can ask and usually get a fair bit of money for it. In fact, buy one used, finish your windows and then sell it for what you paid for it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, buying used tools is smart. If you take care if them, you can usually break even if you resell them.

And nothing is worse for practicing nailing skills than finish nails into trim pieces. If you hadn't already noticed, trim is expensive! It's not hard to ruin a piece by smashing a bent nail into it.
 
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