I’m building some cabinets and am currently working on the plywood carcases. The top, bottom, and sides are 3/4″ birch plywood. Top and bottom are dado’d into the sides by 1/4″.
Here’s the problem. During glue-up, I’m using a angled finish nailer to secure the top/bottom in the dado until the glue dries. I’m going crazy with this darn nail gun. It seems like every nail either is shot too shallow (so it comes out the inside of the cabinet) or too steep (and it comes out the side). This seems ridiculous to me.
Any tips?
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Replies
Don't use nails nor nail guns. That is my advice.
Cadiddlehopper
"Top and bottom are dado'd into the sides by 1/4". "
OldSaw
That is not a lot of dado, and probably gives you more problems than help. Try making the dado 1/2" in the future. That will give you about double the gluing surface and you can use a woodscrew to help in assembly and increasing the holding power. You pre-drill the top and bottom on a slight angle with a 3/16" drill bit and countersink for the head of a number 8 wood screw, so that a 1 1/2" screw runs down to the center of the 3/4" gable. You will also find that when you set the cabinet back into a 1/2" dado, it does more to keep the cabinet square. You can nail the backs if you want, but once again, predrilling and countersinking the back and using glue and wood screws will make for a much stronger assembly. Idealy, you will predrill the gables through the countersunk screw hole with a 1/8" drill bit before screwing. JL
Edited 3/24/2007 7:43 pm ET by jeanlou
OldSaw,
There was an excellent video clip on here about 6 months or so ago showing Chris Schwartz (editor of Pop. WWing ?) driving cut nails into carcas grove. I think he used a bit of a jig. Perhaps you can find the clip here or over in Popular Woodworking site.
For some reason, and I don't know why, if I just angle the gun slightly (like 10 degrees or so) the brad or finish nail goes where I expect it to. But if I try to angle one at 30 - 45 degrees, the brads/nails seem to wander all over the place.
So I avoid the problem by angling only slightly.
If it's an "angled" gun, I assume it is 15 ga. If you have one, an 18 ga nailer would be preferable.
With the 15 ga nailer, I would guess you're either not holding the gun straight or the nails are too long.
If you are face nailing, 1 1/4" nails would be adequate. If you are trying to blind nail at an angle (thru the dado), you should be using 3/4" nails (max), and none of the 15 ga nailers I know about will take anything less than 1 1/4".
Also, veneer core ply has a tendency to blow out, since the nails will hit a hard part of the inner core, bend, and come out the face side.
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"It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts."
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