Not too long ago I decided that it was time for me to do a little bit of work on the wood deck outside my house. The "wizard" that previously owned my house decided it would be a good thing to paint it blue, and I now had the problem of the paint is peeling off of it.
My wood deck is basically held together by 3" long nails, rather than screws, and I had the idea that rather than sanding the paint off of the wood deck, I would instead just pull out the nails, flip the boards over, screw them back down, and then stain my deck the correct way. It was easy to see when looking at my deck that I needed to literally remove hundreds of nails, and with many of the nail heads being counter sunk well below the surface of the wood, I knew that removing the nails was going to be quite the tedious task. I took a trip to my local hardware store were I found the Weller Nail Puller.
The Weller Nail Puller is a tool that provides you with a very easy way to remove nails. It has an all metal construction and measures about 18" long, while extending the handle brings it to 23" in length. It weighs approximately 4-5 pounds. The jaw at the bottom that opens and closes to grip the nails is made from hardened steel. There is also a part that extends approximately 3" from the bottom of the nail puller to give you some leverage when pulling out nails.
This nail puller is very easy to use. All you need to do is position the nail puller with the jaws opened up over the head of the nail that you would like to remove. After that you need extend the handle which will act as a hammering device and pound it down one or two times. This will cause the jaw of the nail puller to go down into the wood and pinch underneath the head of the nail. After you see that the nail puller has gripped below the head of the nail, simply pull the handle backwards while using the 3" extension at the bottom of the nail puller for leverage, and the nail is easily removed.
It was a little tricky to use at first, but after the first three or four nails I had it down pretty good. Make sure that you are very careful when sliding the handle up and down trying to get a grip on the head of the nail. It is very easy to get a finger pinched between the moving and stationary parts of the handle. I had a nice blood blister that will vouch for that!
When I was using the nail puller, I found that I was able to easily remove nails that were 1/8" or more beneath the surface of the wood. I did have a couple of instances where they head came right off of the nail as I was removing it. The first time it happened I really wasn't sure what I would do next to remove the nail, but I simply placed the jaw of the nail puller over the headless nail, rocked back on the handle, and I was still able to remove the nail. Try that with a different type of nail puller, all I can say is good luck.
It was easy to see that when using the Weller Nail Puller, two good sized dents are made in the wood from the jaw that digs beneath the head of the nail. Because of this, I don't think it would be a good idea to use this nail pulling tool for pieces of wood that you plan to reuse. As I mentioned above, I was just flipping my deck boards over so it really didn't matter to me.
The Weller Nail Puller seem to be very well made. Besides missing a little bit of black paint in a couple of spots it seems just fine. The jaw section that grips the nails is still in great shape after removing hundreds of nails, and I'm sure that this tool will last me for the rest of my life.
Overall I found the Weller Nail Puller to be an excellent tool as it saved me quite a bit of time by giving me a very easy way to remove nails that were embedded in the boards of my deck. I would highly recommend it.
Consists of hammer handle, long and short jaw. Box joint keeps jaws in perfect alignment. Black enamel finish. Blue body and hand-hold. Polished jaws....More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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