What's the best way to fill 18 gauges brad nail holes? I'm finishing a
cupboard. Thx.

"Alan Smithee" wrote in message
news:N7GTd.501476$8l.353551@pd7tw1no...
What's the best way to fill 18 gauges brad nail holes? I'm finishing a
cupboard. Thx.

I use glue...don't use brads where the holes will show. ;-)

But tiny holes will disappear, pretty much, if you use a
wood filler ("Plastic Wood") before finishing or even a
wax stick wood filler after finishing. The "trick" is to
confine the filler to the hole, not the wood pores surrounding
the hole.

Jim Stuyck

"Alan Smithee" wrote in message
What's the best way to fill 18 gauges brad nail holes? I'm finishing a
cupboard. Thx.

Are you using a lot of brad nails? If not an excessive amount, then I'd
recommend another option. One of my favourite tools is the blind nailer that
I picked up at Lee Valley Tools. It works great and with a small amount of
practice on scrap, you can use nails to attach wood while leaving no marks
whatsoever. Each nail hole takes me less than two minutes. It works very
well with hardwood trim or faceframes and has marginal effectiveness on
veneered plywood, the thickness of the initial face veneer being the most
crucial aspect. Cheaper veneered plywoods usually have a thinner surface.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...83&cat=1,41182

I use white glue instead of the fish glue that LV suggests and to speed up
the process, I've purchased two edging clamps. Holding time for the shaving
to stay down with the hand and white glue is four to five minutes, the
edging clamp only takes 30 seconds and then I'm onto the next point for
attachment.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...=1,43838,43857

One other thing I do is to raise the shaving, drill a slightly undersized
hole for the nail, hammer it in and then countersink it a bit. The advantage
is that less strenuous hammering is needed to insert the nail which goes a
long way to preventing crushing of the edge if the hammer slips off the
nail.

How do I confine the filler to just the hole. What's the trick? Thx.

"Jim Stuyck" wrote in message
...

"Alan Smithee" wrote in message
news:N7GTd.501476$8l.353551@pd7tw1no...
What's the best way to fill 18 gauges brad nail holes? I'm finishing a
cupboard. Thx.

I use glue...don't use brads where the holes will show. ;-)

But tiny holes will disappear, pretty much, if you use a
wood filler ("Plastic Wood") before finishing or even a
wax stick wood filler after finishing. The "trick" is to
confine the filler to the hole, not the wood pores surrounding
the hole.

Jim Stuyck

Alan Smithee wrote:

....top posting corrected...

"Jim Stuyck" wrote in message
...

"Alan Smithee" wrote in message
news:N7GTd.501476$8l.353551@pd7tw1no...
What's the best way to fill 18 gauges brad nail holes? I'm finishing a
cupboard. Thx.

I use glue...don't use brads where the holes will show. ;-)

But tiny holes will disappear, pretty much, if you use a
wood filler ("Plastic Wood") before finishing or even a
wax stick wood filler after finishing. The "trick" is to
confine the filler to the hole, not the wood pores surrounding
the hole.

How do I confine the filler to just the hole. What's the trick? Thx.

There'll always be a little or you probably won't get the hole fully
filled. On a flat a stiff putty knife will help. On a curve, find
anything that will get to the surface.

How is the piece going to be finished? If it's painted, doesn't matter,
the plastic-resin fillers will be covered. If not, they're almost
impossible to match at all closely. In that case I'd use the wax stick
after finishing.

For any of the other fillers, you'll have to lightly sand it flush to
get a good surface in all likelihood.

"Alan Smithee" wrote in message
news:byHTd.502040$Xk.177786@pd7tw3no...
How do I confine the filler to just the hole. What's the trick? Thx.



VERY SIMPLE Nail or shoot the brad through a piece of maksing tape. Put a
piece of masking tape at the location for the brad, nail through the tape,
apply putty on top of the tape and into the hole then sand it off when the
putty dries.
The putty ends in the hole only.

"Duane Bozarth" wrote in message
...

How do I confine the filler to just the hole. What's the trick? Thx.

There'll always be a little or you probably won't get the hole fully
filled. On a flat a stiff putty knife will help. On a curve, find
anything that will get to the surface.



VERY SIMPLE Nail or shoot the brad through a piece of masking tape. Put a
piece of masking tape at the location for the brad, nail through the tape,
apply putty on top of the tape and into the hole then sand it off when the
putty dries.
The putty ends in the hole only.

I've not built a lot of cabinets. This is the second since I acquired my
brad nailer. The carcass is 48wX13dX28h with one shelf dadoed into the
middle. I'm using a lot of dados and rabbits on the edges and then glueing
and brad nailing everything together so I've got holes on the sides and
edges. I'm using 3/4" cabinet grade birch plywood and then I'm facing the
edges with 3/4 by 3/8 strips of solid birch to hide the edges. The facing
strips are also being brad nailed and glued. All totaled I have probably 50
to 80 holes to fill. On the bright side the cabinet looks pretty good
otherwise. I'm going to stain it walnut coloured.


"Upscale" wrote in message
...
"Alan Smithee" wrote in message
What's the best way to fill 18 gauges brad nail holes? I'm finishing a
cupboard. Thx.

Are you using a lot of brad nails? If not an excessive amount, then I'd
recommend another option. One of my favourite tools is the blind nailer
that
I picked up at Lee Valley Tools. It works great and with a small amount of
practice on scrap, you can use nails to attach wood while leaving no marks
whatsoever. Each nail hole takes me less than two minutes. It works very
well with hardwood trim or faceframes and has marginal effectiveness on
veneered plywood, the thickness of the initial face veneer being the most
crucial aspect. Cheaper veneered plywoods usually have a thinner surface.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...83&cat=1,41182

I use white glue instead of the fish glue that LV suggests and to speed up
the process, I've purchased two edging clamps. Holding time for the
shaving
to stay down with the hand and white glue is four to five minutes, the
edging clamp only takes 30 seconds and then I'm onto the next point for
attachment.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...=1,43838,43857

One other thing I do is to raise the shaving, drill a slightly undersized
hole for the nail, hammer it in and then countersink it a bit. The
advantage
is that less strenuous hammering is needed to insert the nail which goes a
long way to preventing crushing of the edge if the hammer slips off the
nail.

"Alan Smithee" wrote in message
How do I confine the filler to just the hole. What's the trick? Thx.

Very carefully?

Ahhhh. That's smart. Thx.

"Leon" wrote in message
. com...

"Duane Bozarth" wrote in message
...

How do I confine the filler to just the hole. What's the trick? Thx.

There'll always be a little or you probably won't get the hole fully
filled. On a flat a stiff putty knife will help. On a curve, find
anything that will get to the surface.



VERY SIMPLE Nail or shoot the brad through a piece of masking tape. Put
a
piece of masking tape at the location for the brad, nail through the tape,
apply putty on top of the tape and into the hole then sand it off when the
putty dries.
The putty ends in the hole only.

"Alan Smithee" wrote in message

How do I confine the filler to just the hole. What's the trick? Thx.

Simply put a piece of blue painter's tape on the nail/brad site before you
nail. Apply the filler to the nail hole while the tape is on. Let the filler
set, then peel off the tape ... you will be left with a perfectly clean area
around the nail hole.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 11/06/04

What's the best way to fill 18 gauges brad nail holes? I'm finishing a
cupboard. Thx.


Are you painting the cupboard? If so, wood filler, sand, prime, paint.
Staining? If so, apply stains, first coat of finish, fill holes, final
finish.

Dave

Yes I should have said I'm staining. Why fill "after" the first coat?

"TeamCasa" wrote in message
...
What's the best way to fill 18 gauges brad nail holes? I'm finishing a
cupboard. Thx.


Are you painting the cupboard? If so, wood filler, sand, prime, paint.
Staining? If so, apply stains, first coat of finish, fill holes, final
finish.

Dave

Duane Bozarth wrote:
Alan Smithee wrote:

...top posting corrected...

"Jim Stuyck" wrote in message
...

"Alan Smithee" wrote in message
news:N7GTd.501476$8l.353551@pd7tw1no...
What's the best way to fill 18 gauges brad nail holes? I'm
finishing a cupboard. Thx.

I use glue...don't use brads where the holes will show. ;-)

But tiny holes will disappear, pretty much, if you use a
wood filler ("Plastic Wood") before finishing or even a
wax stick wood filler after finishing. The "trick" is to
confine the filler to the hole, not the wood pores surrounding
the hole.

How do I confine the filler to just the hole. What's the trick? Thx.

There'll always be a little or you probably won't get the hole fully
filled. On a flat a stiff putty knife will help. On a curve, find
anything that will get to the surface.

How is the piece going to be finished? If it's painted, doesn't
matter, the plastic-resin fillers will be covered. If not, they're
almost impossible to match at all closely. In that case I'd use the
wax stick after finishing.

For any of the other fillers, you'll have to lightly sand it flush to
get a good surface in all likelihood.

Sorry about the top post...I rebooted and forgot to run Quote-Fix.

"Alan Smithee" wrote in message
strips are also being brad nailed and glued. All totaled I have probably
50
to 80 holes to fill.

I don't consider 50 holes to be excessive, but that's me. On my 6' long, 5'
high entertainment center, I probably blind nailed close to 50 nails to
attach the face frame. On the plus side of nailing when building it, I used
countersunk finishing nails to attach the sides of the cabinet to the
shelves and then filled the holes with filler. Over the two 5' x 21" sides,
it's extremely hard to find where I've filled nail holes. Of course, I used
regular, smaller headed finishing nails instead of the bigger headed nails
that a nail gun uses.

On the bright side the cabinet looks pretty good
otherwise. I'm going to stain it walnut coloured.

If you're going to stain it walnut, I'd say just go with the countersunk
nails and filler. I'd expect the dark colour of walnut stain to hide most
filler colour imperfections. A few simple practice tests on some scrap would
tell you yea or nay. Knowing one way or another could save you quite a bit
of construction time.

"Alan Smithee" wrote in message
news:Z8ITd.502428$Xk.59709@pd7tw3no...

Sorry about the top post...I rebooted and forgot to run Quote-Fix.



You should not have to rerun Quote-Fix Alan. Check the help pages. Once
you install it you should be able to configure it to startup automatically.
It's been a while since I ran it so I don't remember it well, but I know
that I did not have to run it after a reboot.
--

-Mike-

I use the Minwax brand filler sticks that match the stains they produce.
Works quite well.

Joe in Denver
my woodworking website:
http://www.the-wildings.com/shop/

"Alan Smithee" wrote in message
news:N7GTd.501476$8l.353551@pd7tw1no...
What's the best way to fill 18 gauges brad nail holes? I'm finishing a
cupboard. Thx.

What's the best way to fill 18 gauges brad nail holes? I'm finishing a
cupboard. Thx.


Are you painting the cupboard? If so, wood filler, sand, prime, paint.
Staining? If so, apply stains, first coat of finish, fill holes, final
finish.

Dave

Yes I should have said I'm staining. Why fill "after" the first coat?

It keeps the filler confined to the hole, you don't need as much and it will
not take stain the same as the original wood. The filler will not be as
noticeable and you can match the color of the finished product much easier
with dyes or melt in filler.

Dave

"Joe Wilding" wrote in message
I use the Minwax brand filler sticks that match the stains they produce.
Works quite well.

I didn't know Minwax had filler sticks, but I use similar ones that I
purchased from Lee Valley Tools a number of years ago. They've changed
products over the years and although considerably more expensive than my
initial purchase, the ones below accomplish the same thing. One advantage to
the ones below is that specific colours can be purchased whereas I
originally purchased a single package of about a dozen different colours,
some I'll likely never use.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...at=1,190,42997

Alan Smithee wrote:
What's the best way to fill 18 gauges brad nail holes? I'm finishing
a
cupboard. Thx.

Ask Norm. He has more experience than anyone I know. The other day
there was a close-up shot of Brad-O-Matic and it clearly showed that
his brads are slightly countersunk. This means he MUST be leaving them
in after the glue sets otherwise he's have to make craters to get them
out. And this was on an exterior piece of gingerbread (fancy trim)
too!

FoggyTown

Well, I see at least 3 reasonable approaches here, and I'll add another. In
one case I stained and finished all the pieces before assembly. For the nail
holes I made filler using sawdust and glue, adding enough stain so it matched
when dry. Test this first, as the dust will take the stain differently. For
each hole, stuck some in and immediately wiped with a damp sponge. The finish
prevented either the stain or the glue from sticking at all, and it easily
wiped clean. Did several hundred nail holes this way.

After it dries, check with a raking light. You may find a few holes that
aren't completely filled, and do a second pass.

One variation where you have a gloss finish is to apply only enough finish to
seal, then the final finish coats after the holes are filled, so the filled
holes have the same gloss.

Note: If you should end up staining after nailing, often a dark stain will
cause the hole to be outlined because of the grain difference. Even nailing
through tape may not prevent this, so try it first. Just don't ask me how I
learned it.

GerryG

On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 13:55:57 GMT, "Alan Smithee" wrote:

What's the best way to fill 18 gauges brad nail holes? I'm finishing a
cupboard. Thx.

GerryG wrote:
Well, I see at least 3 reasonable approaches here, and I'll add
another. In one case I stained and finished all the pieces before
assembly. For the nail holes I made filler using sawdust and glue,
adding enough stain so it matched when dry. Test this first, as the
dust will take the stain differently. For each hole, stuck some in
and immediately wiped with a damp sponge. The finish prevented either
the stain or the glue from sticking at all, and it easily wiped
clean. Did several hundred nail holes this way.

After it dries, check with a raking light. You may find a few holes
that aren't completely filled, and do a second pass.

One variation where you have a gloss finish is to apply only enough
finish to seal, then the final finish coats after the holes are
filled, so the filled holes have the same gloss.

Note: If you should end up staining after nailing, often a dark stain
will cause the hole to be outlined because of the grain difference.
Even nailing through tape may not prevent this, so try it first. Just
don't ask me how I learned it.

GerryG

On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 13:55:57 GMT, "Alan Smithee"
wrote:

What's the best way to fill 18 gauges brad nail holes? I'm finishing
a cupboard. Thx.

Thank you. It sounds like you know what you're talking about. I'm going to
start by testing your method. I've no shortage of sawdust.

Alan Smithee wrote:
I've not built a lot of cabinets. This is the second since I acquired my
brad nailer. The carcass is 48wX13dX28h with one shelf dadoed into the
middle. I'm using a lot of dados and rabbits on the edges and then glueing
and brad nailing everything together so I've got holes on the sides and
edges. I'm using 3/4" cabinet grade birch plywood and then I'm facing the
edges with 3/4 by 3/8 strips of solid birch to hide the edges. The facing
strips are also being brad nailed and glued. All totaled I have probably 50
to 80 holes to fill. On the bright side the cabinet looks pretty good
otherwise. I'm going to stain it walnut coloured.


"Upscale" wrote in message
...

"Alan Smithee" wrote in message

What's the best way to fill 18 gauges brad nail holes? I'm finishing a
cupboard. Thx.

Are you using a lot of brad nails? If not an excessive amount, then I'd
recommend another option. One of my favourite tools is the blind nailer

that

I picked up at Lee Valley Tools. It works great and with a small amount of
practice on scrap, you can use nails to attach wood while leaving no marks
whatsoever. Each nail hole takes me less than two minutes. It works very
well with hardwood trim or faceframes and has marginal effectiveness on
veneered plywood, the thickness of the initial face veneer being the most
crucial aspect. Cheaper veneered plywoods usually have a thinner surface.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...83&cat=1,41182

I use white glue instead of the fish glue that LV suggests and to speed up
the process, I've purchased two edging clamps. Holding time for the

shaving

to stay down with the hand and white glue is four to five minutes, the
edging clamp only takes 30 seconds and then I'm onto the next point for
attachment.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...=1,43838,43857

One other thing I do is to raise the shaving, drill a slightly undersized
hole for the nail, hammer it in and then countersink it a bit. The

advantage

is that less strenuous hammering is needed to insert the nail which goes a
long way to preventing crushing of the edge if the hammer slips off the
nail.






I suggest that you test the old time method before
you pick a specific method of filling the hole.

Take a similar piece of wood and shoot it. Put a
tiny dab of white glue in the brad hole, then sand
with fine grit. The hole fills in with the
sawdust and the glue holds it in place. The less
glue the better, but fill the hole even if you
have to add glue a second time. Don't use
carpenters glue, just white glue. Stain. Finding
the filled nail hole should be difficult. Also
works very well on 45 degree joints where a little
filler is needed in places to mask a less than
perfect cut.

Your welcome, and here's a follow-up--
Somewhere inside the cabinet, either write on the wood or place a label
identifying your finishing schedule, including exact stain and finish. Five
years from now you'll be glad you did this.
....and...
with any furniture I make for people, I include a small touch-up bottle. Offen
a toner made from a little stain and finish. With a thin brush they can hide
small scratches that penetrate to bare wood.
GerryG

On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 23:57:34 GMT, "Alan Smithee" wrote:

Thank you. It sounds like you know what you're talking about. I'm going to
start by testing your method. I've no shortage of sawdust.

On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 13:55:57 GMT, "Alan Smithee"
wrote:

What's the best way to fill 18 gauges brad nail holes? I'm finishing a
cupboard. Thx.


I might use brad nails for some painted furniture projects, and in
that case I follow the advice of the brad Godfather Norm and use 33
glazing compound.