# The 'Ultimate' Nail Puller



## middle.road (Oct 17, 2014)

Remodeling and salvaging wood, you yank a lot of nails a fasteners.
When we got this house I figured I had a pretty good collection of pullers - WRONG
The previous owner had vented the dryer down into an enclosed crawlspace so everything
was rusty, badly.
I picked up a couple of other pullers and still kept getting my knuckles busted.
We've been re-working joists all over this house, downstairs and up in the attic.

I finally came across these and they work great. -=- *LINK *-=-
I put a piece of heater hose on the one handle to keep from chewing it up with the cheater bar.
It's made redoing joists and framing quite a bit easier.

_Dan


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## Hardly (Oct 17, 2014)

Thanks for posting that. We have been doing some remodeling and I can think of quite a number of times that it would have come in handy. With Christmas approaching I have to wonder if that might not make a nice addition to the wifes tool box. I know what you are thinking, that I spoil her. But a woman who works needs good tools too.


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## hman (Oct 17, 2014)

Durn!  Another tool I'm gonna _have_ to get.

About the only limitation I see on the Extractor it is that it will only work on exposed nails.  I use a cat's paw puller when I have to go digging for the heads.  But once they're up, I guess I can let the Extractor take over


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## Philco (Oct 17, 2014)

Old machinist (Don) made a cool nail puller sometime back that can be seen in this thread
http://www.hobby-machinist.com/show...ment-for-a-slide-hammer?highlight=Nail+puller


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## george wilson (Oct 18, 2014)

Although your nail puller is very nice,I have one of those old fashioned nail pullers that have the heavy cast iron sliding handle so you can pound the pincer jaws below the surface of the wood to get under the heads of fully driven in nail heads. I think it is still the best design since many nails are flush. I don't know if they are still made,but might be found on Ebay used. These pullers are pretty large,and probably can't be used between upright 2x4's in walls,unless you can use it a bit sideways to clear the studs.


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## xalky (Oct 18, 2014)

middle.road said:


> Remodeling and salvaging wood, you yank a lot of nails a fasteners.
> When we got this house I figured I had a pretty good collection of pullers - WRONG
> The previous owner had vented the dryer down into an enclosed crawlspace so everything
> was rusty, badly.
> ...


Those are very nice. I will be buying those. Having been in the home remodeling business for 30 years, I can tell you that when it comes to pulling nails, no one tool can do it all. I have small and large flat bars for pulling moldings without destroying them. I also have a variety of crow bars for pulling apart those beastly, spiked together heavy assemblies, like window headers and hardwood flooring. Cats paws for digging out spikes when nothing else will do.

 I use end pinchers a lot for pulling out finish nails from the back side of moldings, so as not to destroy the face of the molding. I do this quite often, when trying to save old molding profiles for reuse on a project. The puller in the link kinda work along those lines, but yours seem like they'd have a superior leverage advantage.


george wilson said:


> Although your nail puller is very nice,I have one of those old fashioned nail pullers that have the heavy cast iron sliding handle so you can pound the pincer jaws below the surface of the wood to get under the heads of fully driven in nail heads. I think it is still the best design since many nails are flush. I don't know if they are still made,but might be found on Ebay used. These pullers are pretty large,and probably can't be used between upright 2x4's in walls,unless you can use it a bit sideways to clear the studs.


George, I've seen those, in the hands of an old timer, but have never been able to find a pair anywhere.

Marcel


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## middle.road (Oct 18, 2014)

george wilson said:


> Although your nail puller is very nice,I have one of those old fashioned nail pullers that have the heavy cast iron sliding handle so you can pound the pincer jaws below the surface of the wood to get under the heads of fully driven in nail heads. I think it is still the best design since many nails are flush. I don't know if they are still made,but might be found on Ebay used. These pullers are pretty large,and probably can't be used between upright 2x4's in walls,unless you can use it a bit sideways to clear the studs.



Yep, yep, I've got one of those also, an oldie. I've had to resharpen it a half a dozen times in the last 1-1/2 years.
I've been using it to get a nail started then I go to the Extractor it doesn't slip at all because it bites down.
I was thinking of getting my buddy to weld the tips with something tough to see if maybe they would last longer.

Now everyone raise their hand who's ever used one and caught the web between your thumb and index finger. :biggrin:

They are still being made by Crescent in two sizes:


I also have one of these, very handy with the adjustable head:



The Oldie---


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## middle.road (Feb 29, 2016)

*** Resurrection Warning ***
Made a mod to my pair. Didn't want to tear up the yellow grips so I slid, pounded, cajoled a hunk of 
5/8" heater hose on to the leverage handle. Made up a couple of pieces of EMT at a foot and a foot and a half,
and nothing stops these pliers. I've yanked out 20p's with them.

Great time with them this afternoon/evening:
We finally got around to repairing this one wall that we have where the PO had put on two layers of paneling
on top of a layer of drywall. There were enough nails left in the studs after demo to choke a whale. 
Well, we started pulling nails, and somehow, I'm still not sure how it happened, but The Better Half managed
to grab these before I did. 
She was kicking arse and taking names yanking nails so I gave up with a normal pry bar and grabbed 
a long neck, parked myself on a stool and just watch her go to town.
We filled a 24oz container with scrap nails off of only a 12' run of wall...


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## Ulma Doctor (Feb 29, 2016)

thanks Dan,
i didn't even know that nail puller existed


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## pebbleworm (Feb 29, 2016)

I like my Cyclops-
https://www.google.com/search?q=cyc...bC157LAhVLzWMKHaUPCL4QsAQILQ&biw=1920&bih=965


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## kd4gij (Mar 1, 2016)

Ulma Doctor said:


> thanks Dan,
> i didn't even know that nail puller existed




 I can se the salvaged lumber stacking up now.


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## pebbleworm (Mar 1, 2016)

I took a deeper look, and this does look like a useful tool.  I do like my Cyclops, but it has let me down more than a few times.  With some rehab work on a 110 year old house coming up the Jefferson tool loks like a handy gadget!  Kind of like an Eiffel geared plierwrench all grown up.


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## Billh50 (Mar 2, 2016)

I have used these and they work great for removing those twisted nails from skids.


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## housedad (Mar 4, 2016)

Dang, those Crescent pullers have gotten expensive over the years.   I love the parrot jaws.  After a little bit of practice, you can pull a countersunk head nail with one as fast as an exposed one with a regular hammer.  I have 3 of them from about 30 years ago an I still use them several times a year.   I believe I paid $25 each back then. (The OLD days.)


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