need to cut the heads off a thousand nails? easiest/best way?

[shawnba67]

I am cannibalising the metal siding off a barn im taking down for a new pole building. This thing is made of the drill a hole to drive a nail wood. The siding is held on with what looks like 16 penny nails but since i cant pull any of the dern things out im not sure. Im very concerned a grinder would burn the paint and make a rusty awful mess of my currently reusable siding. So what are your ideas on getting these nails beheaded? thanks much

[Boolit_Head]

Cutoff wheel? If you could get it under the head it would go through a nail quickly. Otherwise you might have to chew off the head and maybe harm the paint a bit.

[country gent]

WHile there are nail pullers that may pull the nails its going to be a slow process. Ideally getting the head above the wood by 1/4- 1/2" would be ideal to have room to cut them. You might be able to used a carbide burr in a 1/4" grinder to cut the heads of with out raising them though. Wear a face shield and gloves the chips are nasty. If you can get one of the slide hammer type pullers and raise heads then a heavy pair of dyke can be used to nip heads off

[Omega]

Use a drill bit a bit bigger than the diameter of the nail.

[osteodoc08]

If the heads are small Get a punch and hammer the nails through the siding and repurpose with larger nails.

If the heads are big, drill the center out and the outer ring should pop off and pull them off.

Otherwise, same ole same ole, hammer and crow bar, but it sounds like you want to keep them as nice looking as possible.

[bangerjim]

I have a tool similar to this. It gets under a nail head with hardly any room and really extracts them fast.

http://www.ebtoolcompany.com/

Put a piece of plywood between the tool and the siding if you are worried about damage.

Forget the old prybars! You will damage your siding.

Forget cut-off wheels and grinders. You will be at this task for months!

[rondog]

Ugh, tough situation. Maybe center punch each nail head and drill them? Time consuming, but least destructive thing I can think of atm.

[WILCO]

Send it all out for scrap. Life is too short.

[osteodoc08]

I have a tool similar to this. It gets under a nail head with hardly any room and really extracts them fast.

http://www.ebtoolcompany.com/

Put a piece of plywood between the tool and the siding if you are worried about damage.

Forget the old prybars! You will damage your siding.

Forget cut-off wheels and grinders. You will be at this task for months!

thats a cool tool. Father's Day is coming up.....

[dtknowles]

Use a sawsall with metal blade and cut between the stud and the sideing.

Tim

[Teddy (punchie)]

Spot weld drill bit . Pull some of the ones you can. Hard job reclaiming items.

[garym1a2]

this tool and some wood to protect the metal.

Rear Axle Pulling Plate with 5-lb. Slide Hammer Assembly


I have a tool similar to this. It gets under a nail head with hardly any room and really extracts them fast. Or find a tool made to pull car axels

http://www.ebtoolcompany.com/

Put a piece of plywood between the tool and the siding if you are worried about damage.

Forget the old prybars! You will damage your siding.

Forget cut-off wheels and grinders. You will be at this task for months!

[runfiverun]

I'd go with this.
you'll have to use bigger nails to put it back up, but I'd imagine you wanted the metal this summer.

[runfiverun]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJOeJ-c3RAs

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

WHile there are nail pullers that may pull the nails its going to be a slow process. Ideally getting the head above the wood by 1/4- 1/2" would be ideal to have room to cut them. You might be able to used a carbide burr in a 1/4" grinder to cut the heads of with out raising them though. Wear a face shield and gloves the chips are nasty. If you can get one of the slide hammer type pullers and raise heads then a heavy pair of dyke can be used to nip heads off

This is what I'd try first, I've used these on other types of salvage projects.
http://www.toolbarn.com/crescent-56.html?gclid=CMSVzpaAvMwCFQyNaQodcAIE3w

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Ooooo, R5R, I like that Nail kicker :bigsmyl2:

[Ballistics in Scotland]

There are so many devices that would do it, but would leave visible damage on the siding, from front or rear. I'd drill a hole the diameter of the nail head in a piece of steel, about a quarter-inch thick, and glue something like thin sheet rubber, leather or card to one side. Then I would hold it over each nail-head, and drill through it with a drill of the same diameter. When you get to nail shank, the head drops off. It is a bit of work to prepare, but lets you out of a lot of centre-punching.

[Col4570]

Use a Hole Saw the same diameter or near to the nail head size.When renailing slip a washer onto the new nail.

[Mk42gunner]

16 Penny sounds awful big to be used to attach tin siding, to me. Is it possible the nails are big headed 10 or 12d? Or maybe rusty galvanized roofing nails?

What kind of tin siding are we talking about? Corrugated, flat or otherwise shaped?

What about a Wonderbar? They at least are flatish and don't do much damage to the surface you are pulling from.

If you can get under the head at all, a bigish set of end nips will work; the downside to that is you will feel like you spent all day milking cows.

Robert

[garym1a2]

The tin roofs I seen had either rubber or lead washers under the nail head. The one I made used screws and a rubber washer

[Smoke4320]

WHile there are nail pullers that may pull the nails its going to be a slow process. Ideally getting the head above the wood by 1/4- 1/2" would be ideal to have room to cut them. You might be able to used a carbide burr in a 1/4" grinder to cut the heads of with out raising them though. Wear a face shield and gloves the chips are nasty. If you can get one of the slide hammer type pullers and raise heads then a heavy pair of dyke can be used to nip heads off

Must be getting old... Someone told me about the heavy dykes too.
I went to town , picked up 2 of them, made sure they were heavy.. all they did was set around and rag on men !!! :) :)

[dtknowles]

Bolt cutters and again I say get between the siding and the studs.

Tim

[jonp]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJOeJ-c3RAs

I so need that and the kwickgripper

[jonp]

I have a tool similar to this. It gets under a nail head with hardly any room and really extracts them fast.

http://www.ebtoolcompany.com/

Put a piece of plywood between the tool and the siding if you are worried about damage.

Forget the old prybars! You will damage your siding.

Forget cut-off wheels and grinders. You will be at this task for months!

Out of stock, however....http://www.usedanew.com/tool-chest/kwick-gripper-details.html

[PaulG67]

I think Omega's idea would be the least damaging to the siding, prick punch the nail head as close to center as you can before applying the drill. And yes the Nail Kicker is a cool tool but even after viewing the video I am not sure of it's use for the op's purpose.

[jsizemore]

die grinder with carbide or tungsten carbide bit.

[Traffer]

There are so many devices that would do it, but would leave visible damage on the siding, from front or rear. I'd drill a hole the diameter of the nail head in a piece of steel, about a quarter-inch thick, and glue something like thin sheet rubber, leather or card to one side. Then I would hold it over each nail-head, and drill through it with a drill of the same diameter. When you get to nail shank, the head drops off. It is a bit of work to prepare, but lets you out of a lot of centre-punching.
I think you have a great idea here. If he has a drill with a place for a depth gauge, he could attach the jig with the hole right to the drill, making it quicker.

[starmac]

The sawsall between the metal and the studs would be much quicker than any drilling of the nails. I have taken a lot of siding off with an air hammer with a chisel bit, with no damage to the siding. It went really quick, but that was screws not nails, the nails might try to bend. If the studs are too close for a sawsall, milwaukee makes a small rehargable one that would work fine, just have 2 or more batteries.

[BCRider]

If you can't get a stock or modified de-nailing bar to wedge the heads up and out then I'm with the guy above that said "life is too short" Just buy new metal siding. I can't imagine for even a second spending the time needed to drill that many heads off the stems..... *shudder*.....

[starmac]

A sawsall with a good blade would not take over 1 second per nail, substancially less time than just getting a nail puller under the head of a nail that comes out easily, much less one that is hard and causes you to bend the tin in the process.

[Fishman]

When reinstalling, use the screws with a rubber gasket and set you driver clutch to disengage before the gasket gets over compressed and splits. This will eliminate possible leaks now and in the future.

I like BIS's idea of a jig to drill off the nail tops.

[GaryN]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJOeJ-c3RAs

That there tool is pretty awesome. I have never seen one before.

[Teddy (punchie)]

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/shopping?q=tbn:ANd9GcTxZez53B4dl1ldqfcbuq9XWtVWiJG Jh-jGDCDwVynxxdSTfnV9p0zoz83Nza9TJ6O_Ryr7iCA&usqp=CAE

something like this

[Lloyd Smale]

I agree with the drive them through and use bigger heads on the new ones. Id bet the standard pole barn screws with the rubber gaskets would work great

[Petrol & Powder]

Lot's of good ideas but without seeing the actual siding and nails the OP needs to remove I'm not sure which is best.

If they really are 16d nails & you can get to the back of the wood ; that nailkicker tool looks like the ticket.
If the heads are small enough, driving them through may be the least destructive to the siding.
Drilling the heads off would be an option but it seems that approach would be slow.

My best guess is a combination of methods geared towards the greatest speed.

[root]

Use a drill bit a bit bigger than the diameter of the nail.


^^^ This
I did this last summer with a parts car on the floor boards to remove the spot welds.
Slow but the parts car can be put back together just like a erector set.

Done it many times over the years with screws and nails also.

For nails use a spring loaded center punch to get a start dimple.

Rich

[clearcut]

Use horse shoe nippers they cut nails real well.
CC

[GoodOlBoy]

If those nails were old stock from about the 90s out of a nail gun they may have been glue coated, and if they were you ain't gonna pull them with any nail puller that I know of. If a horse shoe nipper won't cut them you are down to a reciprocating saw, or a drill.

Just my 2 cents.

God Bless, and One Love.

Richard

[Preacher Jim]

get an muslim and tell them the nails are Christians