Tim Carter, of AsktheBuilder.com, demonstrates how to install a finish nail using a hammer and nail set. Tim also shows how to do it the fast way with a powered nail gun!

Video Transcription

Many household projects involve hammers and nails. Maybe you are building a piece of furniture, maybe you are putting up trim like this around the window or door. The trouble that can happen is that if you do not know how to handle the hammer the nail in correctly. You can actually cause a defect in the wood that can sometimes could be very, very difficult to repair. There are two ways to do it. The one way involves the old fashioned hammer and nail. How do you hammer a nail end? Simple, you have got to hold on to the nail tightly with your one hand and slowly tap the hammer on the head of the nail making sure that you strike it squarely. As soon as the nail head gets the wood in about an eight of an inch of the surface of the wood you got to stop. You pull out your nail set, these are nice handy little tools, they come in different sizes. Match the nail set to the head of the nail and drive the nail about an eight of an inch into the wood. The second way to drive nails that I prefer is an automatic tool. This is actually an internal combustion engine. It uses gas, a battery and a spark plug that ignites to charge and actually drives the nail and it does it very quickly and there is different type of guns. This one in particular would drive nice long finished nails but guess what. Here is one that drives small itty-bitty nails as well so that if you are doing really fine cabin at work, it works well and that is the way I like to drive finished nails. I am Tim Carter, ask the builder. If you want to discover more home improvement tips, go to AskTheBuilder.com.