Home made stud puller with recycled nails........

[tlmartin84]

I can't take the credit for this idea, I saw it on MPC's post and decide to make one.......

Thought you guys might be interested in this. I picked up a junk slide hammer at a flea market.



It set around for awhile until I saw a MPC using something similar. I used a cheap Chinese set of locking pliers, a coupler nut to make the end interchangeable.



I have a ton of nails that I have pulled from my bostich gun, they were actually in a can headed to the scrap yard when I saved them for this.



Anyhow, I hit the low spots for a split second with a mig, and then feed the sharp tip of the nail into the puddle. I then just clamp on and slide the hammer, it actually worked better than I thought it would.



The nice thing about the visegrips is you can make and clamp to other attachments. And fwiw the nails are a one time use unless you sharpen the tips back up. It takes to much heat to stick them when the are blunt.


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[toplessHO]

great idea
a couple of suggestions
my slide hammer (silver *******)has an adapter to replace the adjusting screw in vise grips
pretty sure they would sell that separately

wouldnt a collet thats split and would slide over the nail be much better? someone please make some

 

[Ohmthis]

I've been planning on making a puller like that. What size nails are you using? A deer ran into the side of my car's quarter panel and I had planned to use this method when I get to the repair.

 

[tlmartin84]

great idea
a couple of suggestions
my slide hammer (silver *******)has an adapter to replace the adjusting screw in vise grips
pretty sure they would sell that separately

wouldnt a collet thats split and would slide over the nail be much better? someone please make some

I think you are missing the point...... I literally have less than $5.00 in ALL of this, and it works just as good as anything I have seen.

I used both S8d's, and S12d's..... I think they are both .131" in diameter.

 

[toplessHO]

no I havent missed the point
just saying they make an adapter for vise grips so you dont have to make one and weld it up.
As for the collet that would be an inexpensive improvement,no need for vise grips

 

[Mohawk Dave]

also just fyi for future welds... try to line the plane of the jaws with the puller. A nut welded flat to the handle will be pulling it ****-eyed willy wampus.

Good info on everything else.

 

[xyster101]

Awesome points for this. Bonus on reusing things headed for the trash!

 

[gungatim]

see...this is why we need a bodywork section in the forum!

nice job btw, I need to pull the creae out of my rear qtr panel on my jeep where I crunched it with the trailer, was going to use the washer trick but I think nails will be a better way to go, you say you mig the panel and stick the nail to it? it stays hot enough to stick that way? or do you hold the nail to the panel and zap it together? seems you could reuse the nails by flipping it over and just zapping the flat head to the panel. will have to play around with this on a scrap panel, no shortage of extra nails to use...

 

[toplessHO]

has anyone tried to use the nails as the electrode
without mig welding that extra amount by using an arc welder?
would be less metal to grind off.
basicly like using a larger version of a pin gun

 

[tlmartin84]

This set of locking pliers has a round mouth on them. When you. Grab the nail head you can adjust it in the grips in the jaws so you pull straight. While I appreciate the tips, this was free and thrown together in five minutes. If I wanted to get fancy I could make plenty of attachments on the lathe.

I have been around quite a few pullers and with the exception of pulling something out of a tube, I have yet to be in a situation where the vise grips have not worked.

The collet is great, but you would have to have a specific size nail, and remove the heads from them. This way I can grab anything out of the bucket and pull it.

I use only the sharp tip. You dont have to put as much heat on the panel this way. I place them like tig welding.

 

[toplessHO]

split collet so that the nail head is what is gripping
wont have to be exact on diameter
I need to get an old body panel to try the nail electrode thing

 

[toplessHO]

heres pics
I took a 1/4 nut and cut a groove in it so that nail would fit in
Its all I could come up with quickly to show that the collet would work.
Improvements would be to simply split it instead of a large groove and find something with a hole that closer to nail size instead of 1/4 ".
the 2 halves would be retained by the slide hammer nut.
Other pic is of the attachment for slide hammer that replaces the adjustment bolt.
I would focus more on the collet as its as straight a pull as you can get,but wont be quite as fast as vise grips.

 

[toplessHO]

I came up with another idea that may work better that the collet
Would need to buy a spare slide hammer nut and modify a little but those cant be that much.
picture shown is of a 20 penny nail which is much larger than what would be used but it was handy.
Cut the end of the slide hammer nut in a "T".
this would allow you to put the slide hammer over the nail without disassembling anything.
The hole in the end of nut is a little too large so just weld the hole up with a 10 penny nail in it so that the nail,thats softer than the weld can be drilled out to that size.
That would also be the size of the T slot cut into the nut.
This would be quicker than visegrips or a collet but will require a dedicated nut.

 

[rsanter]

By the way....you are doing it the old school way that body shops did it before there was such a thing as a stud nailer

We used to either weld the nail, bolt, or whatever to the panel then grab it with puller...
Or in the case of a long crease, we welded a piece of sheetmetal 1"-3" long to the panel in the root of the crease and grabbed it with the puller.
On a long crease it come out nicer with the sheetmetal to pull on verses a bunch of small little points

Bob

 

[toplessHO]

or you can get real fancy and get one of those pin welder setups that have cables attached so that you can adjust the amount of pull from each part of the dent/crease.