Wood Working, Fastening

Hi Everybody,

Most residential buildings are framed of wood. The best way to fasten wood to the interior walls of a wood framed building is with pneumatic nails, pneumatic staples and construction adhesive. You will need; a nail gun that can shoot, up to, 2 and 1/2 inch finish nails, a staple gun that can shoot, at least, a 3/4 inch narrow crown staple, a pin nailer/brad nailer that will shoot nails ranging in length from 3/4 of an inch to 1 and 1/4 inches, an air compressor to power your guns, a stud finder to locate framing members to nail to, a 1/8 inch pin punch with a shaft long enough to drive a nail all the way through the materials you are using, a wonder bar for working inside corner and flat stock joints (a wonder bar is a very small flat pry bar), a pocket level to check level and plumb from time to time, an adhesive gun (caulking gun), construction adhesive, nails and staples. While in most cases, you will be able to find a framing member, from which to pull a layout (99'9% of all residential framing layouts are spaced at 16 inches center to center),  in some cases it isn't there. For example; when installing 3 piece crown molding along the walls that run parallel to the ceiling joists, the backer board that goes on the ceiling is usually placed too far away from the wall to be nailed to the dead wood that the sheet rock is nailed to. The only effective way to fasten these boards to the ceiling is to apply construction adhesive to the ceiling and staple the board in place. the staples will hold the board in place until the glue dries. You will use your staple gun in all applications that require you to install lineal pieces parallel to the framing members, like the verticals in wainscoting. When installing any lineal pieces, remember to make your joints before you nail the board in place completely or you will spend a lot of frustrating time and effort driving nails through boards in order to be able to move them again. It's easy. Literally, do not work yourself into a corner. When you are coming to a corner, leave enough or the board loose to be able to move that board and the next board at the same time. Make the joint, switch to your pin nailer/brad nailer, nail the joint together where possible (it's not always possible), switch back to your nail gun, nail the joint to the wall on both sides, then reach back and finish nailing the first board in place. This method applies to; some inside corners, all outside corners, all flat stock butt joints and all mid run splice joints.Please respond in the comments section with any questions that you have. By the way, no wood working project is finished until it has been appropriately sanded. So, don't forget to sand.

Thanks,
Randy McArthur