How to prevent brad-nail blowouts
Nobody wants a brad sticking out of their drawer side. Here's how to make sure that doesn't happen.
Aug 11, 2021
Video courtesy of our friends at FineHomeBuilding.com
I’m making two full sets of toolboxes right now–each with 15 drawers. Staring down the face of 30 drawers means that these drawers are going to be coarser than most of the work I do–no dovetails, no box joints. In order to get as much depth as possible out of the drawers, my MDF* drawer bottoms are glued and brad-nailed into a rabbet set into the drawer sides. Even though I am not using the finest of Fine Woodworking techniques in my arsenal, I am still aiming for a high level of craftsmanship.
In other words, I couldn’t bear the thought of a brad nail poking out of a drawer side!
In this video, which I shamelessly stole from our sister publication Fine Homebuilding, Chuck Miller demonstrates why brad nails have a tendency to wander, and how to orient the nailer in relation to the workpiece to make sure that it doesn’t wander.
I was nailing into plywood and the likelihood of a brad nail following the “grain” was minimal. Even so, I wanted to do everything I could to stack the odds in my favor. After 15 drawer bottoms, there’s not a errant brad nail in sight. Thanks Chuck!
*at the time, 1/4-in. plywood was $85 a sheet. Even though someone else is paying for it, I couldn’t stomach the thought of paying that much and chose to use MDF even though it’s not ideal.
-Ben Strano
Comments
Wow! what an awesome no-brainer...
Very helpful, and timely since I’m making some small storage boxes and using pin nails to hold glued sides together instead of clamps. I share your pain about wood prices. I purchased four 4” x 4” x 8’ pressure-treated posts last month with sticker shock after paying more than $100. I’ve had luck at the Habitat for Humanity Restore in Bridgeport as a source of wood to be recycled into drawer sides and boxes and so forth. You can often find reasonably priced furniture pieces and solid-wood countertops and doors that have useful amounts of wood that can be dimensioned as needed.
That's good to know! I swing by the restore in Danbury when I'm around it, but they've started turning more into a home good thrift store than supplies.
Bridgeport has always been the larger operation by far. Worth stopping by when your travels bring you to the area and time permits. Although I’ve never had the luck of Scott Phillips who shows off his thrift store bargain finds of butternut, 8/4 walnut and other gems.
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