Oh my gosh.....this is harder than I thought!!

[birdlover]

Nice going with the tears!!! It works everytiime.

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Yup, screws FTW.

And remember, as Mike Holmes would say...

"Glue it and Screw it!"

Get yourself some PL Premium, it is gods gift to DIYers LOLLL

 

[Leah-yes I know I'm crazy]

That's silly...don't act dumb...act appreciative. You've been married too long to get away with acting dumb with your own spouse. Save that for the hardware store.

 

[jvls1942]

Leah-yes I know I'm crazy :

That's silly...don't act dumb...act appreciative. You've been married too long to get away with acting dumb with your own spouse. Save that for the hardware store.

we have been married 45 years. acting dumb still works for her..
when she gets tired of waiting for me to do a project she gets the material together and starts doing it.. she knows it will drive me crazy and I will take over..

 

[Chickenfortress]

Quote:
As someone who does this for a living....do not drill pilot holes for nails! A nail relies on the compression of the wood fibers caused by the penetration to stay in place. If you look at the point of a nail, you will see that it has a kind of chisel point, not a rounded off needle point. Two sides are more acute than the others, and they do the cutting. An experienced carpenter knows that running the sharper edges across the grain, not with it, will produce less splitting of the wood because the fibers are being cut instead of forced apart. If you have trouble getting the nails in straight, practice! Also, use a waffle faced hammer for framing. The waffles grip the head as you hit, keeping it from sliding aside, causing bent nails. If your hammer doesnt have waffles, or you don't want the waffle pattern in your finished areas, try using a bit of coarse sand paper on the face of the hammer. The extra traction this causes will be a great help in preventing bent nails. But, still, the best thing to keep from bending nails is hitting straight. Any angle in the hammer face as it contacts the nail increases the chance that it will be pushed aside instead of in.

 

[Jena]

lol...I made all of these mistakes,

and I learned very quickly that a drill and screws were much easier than a hammer and nails.

I also sat amongst all my efforts and cried myself silly.

But I was so proud when I finished.

Mind you my son was alseep upstairs while I was doing the initial work and I almost used the hammer to tap the window and stir his lazy bones a few times.

Glad your DH is going to help you from here in.

You will get there, and be very proud of your attempts so far.

lol... Now I am planning for this summers work, and I will build on all the things I learned last year.

Good luck to you.

Jena.

 

[jvls1942]

Quote:
As someone who does this for a living....do not drill pilot holes for nails! A nail relies on the compression of the wood fibers caused by the penetration to stay in place. If you look at the point of a nail, you will see that it has a kind of chisel point, not a rounded off needle point. Two sides are more acute than the others, and they do the cutting. An experienced carpenter knows that running the sharper edges across the grain, not with it, will produce less splitting of the wood because the fibers are being cut instead of forced apart. If you have trouble getting the nails in straight, practice! Also, use a waffle faced hammer for framing. The waffles grip the head as you hit, keeping it from sliding aside, causing bent nails. If your hammer doesnt have waffles, or you don't want the waffle pattern in your finished areas, try using a bit of coarse sand paper on the face of the hammer. The extra traction this causes will be a great help in preventing bent nails. But, still, the best thing to keep from bending nails is hitting straight. Any angle in the hammer face as it contacts the nail increases the chance that it will be pushed aside instead of in.

If you look at the face of a good hammer compared to a cheap hammer you will notice that the face of the good hammer is not flat. the curveture of the face allows only a small section of the hammer to come into contact with the nail head. thus it gives you a margin of error in the angle of the hammer head ..

I once bought a cheap hammer and I could not drive a nail with it.
I checked he head of it and it was flat as a pancake.. I threw it as far as I could from the house we were bulding and told the crew that whoever went and picked up that ##%^##^ hammer wa fired..

 

[scogind]

Get a couple of those "trigger clamps" made by Stanley Tools. That's what their website calls them. I got mine at Walmart about 9 yrs ago and am still using them. Its like having a couple of your friends helping hold both ends of the board up while you take your time nailing/screwing. They won't even complain if you stop and have a sip of beer while they are holding the board for you...!

 

[LynneP]

Nails are a pain. We used galvanized screws for everything, the kind that match the typw of wood (treated/not). Then when things go awry, put the drill head in reverse and Voila!

(But your method worked well too= hubby help!)

 

[Rae_37066]

or you can do what I did

, keep them in the dining room until he can't stand the smell, lol luckily my hubby wanted the chickens also and after the 5th week it was time to move them to their own home.

hey heard my little roo crowing at 7 weeks. he hasn't got it down yet but he tries.