"John Smith" wrote in message
...
"sinister" wrote:

I need to remove some deep-set nails. They're the type without large
heads,
and they look like they must have been placed with a nail gun, because the
heads are (say) 1/8" into the wood.

One method I thought of was some kind of drill bit that would drill out a
small circle, except it would have a hole where the nail is so the bit
wouldn't press on the nail itself.


I have a similar situation. I want to salvage the wood (also). I was also
thinking along the lines of drilling but have yet to find a suitable drill
bit.
Have you found anything?

I just pried it up with a wide nail puller (see my other post), but I was
willing to tolerate a little bit of damage.

Another poster said you could drill around the nail with a "plug cutter".
Then I suppose you could easily remove any remaining wood around the nail
with a wood chisel, then either just pull the nail or (if the nail head
doesn't project enough) use a narrow vice-grips and then either yank the
nail using the grips, or pull the nail by pulling on the grips head not the
nail itself.

Apparently it's hard to use a plug-cutter using a hand-held drill rather
than a drill press, but one web page mentioned that you could make it easier
by first drilling a hole in a piece of scrap and then use that to hold the
bit in place.