Safe & Efficient Use Practices

First, set up a workstation that includes a means to confine nails as they are ejected. The sides and bottom must have surfaces that can absorb the energy of the nails, such as foam, sawdust, carpeting, or a tarp. The Nail Kicker operator must wear safety glasses and work shoes, and should wear gloves to handle the wood.

The workstation should be rigid (i.e. saw horses) so that maximum energy from in the Nail Kicker is delivered to the nail and is not partially absorbed by the support. The worker in this photograph is using a soft plastic trash can. That's not desirable, because,the energy delivered to the nail will be much less with small boards.

Similarly, let's say a workstation is set up with sawhorses spread far apart to support long boards and the denailing is going on in the middle of the span. That's very inefficient because a large percentage of the Nail Kicker energy is going into bouncing the board. In that case, maybe a third sawhorse should be added in the middle.

A good way to think about the workstation is to think of the most practical place you would put a board in order to pound a nail into it. It's likely you would put the board down on something hard. Plan in the same way for using the Nail Kicker.

REMOVING NAILS

For the greatest productivity, typically do the following (these photos were taken using an earlier V1 model):

Step 1: Bend the nail straight with the Nail Kicker.

Step 2: Lift the Nail Kicker nose away from the board so that it covers only 1/2" to 5/8" of the end of the nail and pull the trigger. That will drive the nail closer to the surface of the wood.

This is only suggested for nails that project 1-1/2" or more from the wood surface. The reason is that if the nail is long, the end of the nail is close to the end of the driver before the trigger is pulled. Since the driver has to accelerate down the nose before it hits the nail, if the point of the nail is nearby, the driver has little room to develop its speed before impact. By pulling the Nail Kicker away from the wood, the driver has more room to get moving. Reconnx' research has shown that when the nose surrounds only the end 1/2" to 5/8" of the nail, the most energy is delivered to the nail.

Step 3: Place the Nail Kicker nose over the point of the nail again and press down. If you don't want the driver of the earlier V1 or V2 models to indent or penetrate the board, you must hold the tool at least 3/8" from the board. With the V20 model, you can just tighten the thumbscrew on the top of the nose beforehand so the nose cannot retract.

Step 4: With the pull of the trigger this time, the nail is extremely likely to be completely ejected. If the nail is so resistant that it was not ejected, it can usually be removed by hand or with a quick pop with the claw of a hammer.

USING TEAMWORK

Effciency can also be improved by having one person dedicated to using the Nail Kicker and two or more people delivering lumber to the workstation and removing it. Any nails that hang up can be removed by hand while stacking the lumber.