A screw will hold far better than any nail and predrilling will prevent the
possibility of that screw splitting the wood and causing more damage.

For tricky repairs of wood that was just too weak I have often used Wood
Epoxy or a filler compound to build up new material or replace large broken
out areas. When hard, the filler can be sanded, drilled, cut and painted
like regular wood, it just dosen't stain very well. When soft, it can be
molded like putty. Sometimes I need to add additioanl reinforcement of a
screw or threaded rod across the grain of the wood to prevent futurre
splitting.





"ares" wrote in message
news:CqB6e.10842$H_5.8841@trnddc01...
I was given a bedroom set that's beautiful but made like junk; like the
bottom or drawers almost seems like reinforced cardboard put together with
an office stapler or something. It needs some repairs and it's like it's
so
junky you can't really fix it with what's already there. There was a
little
warping and the bottom wouldn't stay in the groove; I managed to fix it
with
a strip of real wood across the bottom with wood glue, and some small
nails
from the back .

Anyway, a foot came off the dresser; it's attached to a triangle of
wood(one
side attached to foot and other to bottom of dresser. The food is sort of
like a block of wood with ridges for decoration; also had some sort of
long
narrow staples and a couple of dowels going from the dresser into the
foot.
There was some slight water damage. Anyway I'm trying to nail this
triangle
of wood to the foot with finishing nails, and the nails keep bending
before
they get into the foot. So I'm constantly hammering and rebending the
nails
and getting nowhere. What is it I might be doing wrong or what could I do
better with this. The other 2 feet seem to be secure and ok. At the
moment, I glued everything back into place with wood glue but it would
need
reinforcement. Should I drill holes? Is it unusual to have to drill a
hole
to put a nail in something, or is a finishing nail the wrong thing?
ares