OK to air-nail 2x4s together on their flat faces?
 

On 2008-03-16, Harry K wrote:

The trick to nailing two (or more) 2X members together so you have a
straight member is to eyeball them and then lay them so the curve is
opposite. Start nailing at one end and keep pulling the opposite
ends to make the area being nailed match each other as you proceed.
A helper is nice but not really needed. It will be easy at the
start but grows harder the nearer you approach the opposite end.
The last nail or two may require a clamp to make the members match.

Interesting, when I've been in this situation I've always aligned the
ends and nailed those off, then aligned the midpoints and nailed that,
and then the quarter points, etc. At a certain point it becomes very
difficult to eliminate the slight difference remaining, so I give up
on the straightening. This gives me something that is on average
straight, but with perhaps small amounts of curvature between each
nailing point.

So that raises the question of whether one of these ways is better
than the other. I don't know, any thoughts?

Cheers, Wayne

OK to air-nail 2x4s together on their flat faces?
 

On Mar 16, 11:04*am, Wayne Whitney wrote:
On 2008-03-16, Harry K wrote:

The trick to nailing two (or more) 2X members together so you have a
straight member is to eyeball them and then lay them so the curve is
opposite. *Start nailing at one end and keep pulling the opposite
ends to make the area being nailed match each other as you proceed.
A helper is nice but not really needed. *It will be easy at the
start but grows harder the nearer you approach the opposite end.
The last nail or two may require a clamp to make the members match.

Interesting, when I've been in this situation I've always aligned the
ends and nailed those off, then aligned the midpoints and nailed that,
and then the quarter points, etc. *At a certain point it becomes very
difficult to eliminate the slight difference remaining, so I give up
on the straightening. *This gives me something that is on average
straight, but with perhaps small amounts of curvature between each
nailing point.

So that raises the question of whether one of these ways is better
than the other. *I don't know, any thoughts?

Cheers, Wayne

You need to be a lot more picky about your lumber. It shouldn't be
necessary to go through all that fuss to get a good result. When you
sort through the junque lumber at the box store, look at the endgrains
and then check for excessive knots, warping, cupping, twist and
whatever. There is a relationship between the endgrain pattern and
quality of the wood straightness. Doesn't take too much inspection to
see the differences and pick out the better pieces. If that stack is
hopeless, go to the other box store or maybe a real lumberyard. Some
species are better than others, too, so it pays to know if is aspen,
pondersosa pine, spruce (not likely), larch, or hemlock (ugh). Yellow
pine is neat stuff but a bear to work with unless you must have its
special properties. HTH

Joe

OK to air-nail 2x4s together on their flat faces?
 

On Mar 16, 6:41*pm, Joe wrote:
On Mar 16, 11:04*am, Wayne Whitney wrote:





On 2008-03-16, Harry K wrote:

The trick to nailing two (or more) 2X members together so you have a
straight member is to eyeball them and then lay them so the curve is
opposite. *Start nailing at one end and keep pulling the opposite
ends to make the area being nailed match each other as you proceed.
A helper is nice but not really needed. *It will be easy at the
start but grows harder the nearer you approach the opposite end.
The last nail or two may require a clamp to make the members match.

Interesting, when I've been in this situation I've always aligned the
ends and nailed those off, then aligned the midpoints and nailed that,
and then the quarter points, etc. *At a certain point it becomes very
difficult to eliminate the slight difference remaining, so I give up
on the straightening. *This gives me something that is on average
straight, but with perhaps small amounts of curvature between each
nailing point.

So that raises the question of whether one of these ways is better
than the other. *I don't know, any thoughts?

Cheers, Wayne

You need to be a lot more picky about your lumber. It shouldn't be
necessary to go through all that fuss to get a good result. When you
sort through the junque lumber at the box store, look at the endgrains
and then check for excessive knots, warping, cupping, twist and
whatever. There is a relationship between the endgrain pattern and
quality of the wood straightness. Doesn't take too much inspection to
see the differences and pick out the better pieces. If that stack is
hopeless, go to the other box store *or maybe a real lumberyard. Some
species are better than others, too, so it pays to know if is aspen,
pondersosa pine, spruce (not likely), larch, or hemlock (ugh). *Yellow
pine is neat stuff but a bear to work with unless you must have its
special properties. HTH

Joe- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

It is all but impossible to find perfectly straight 8ft or more lumber
of any dimension and has been so since I was a pup way back in the
40s.

Harry K

OK to air-nail 2x4s together on their flat faces?
 

On Mar 16, 9:04*am, Wayne Whitney wrote:
On 2008-03-16, Harry K wrote:

The trick to nailing two (or more) 2X members together so you have a
straight member is to eyeball them and then lay them so the curve is
opposite. *Start nailing at one end and keep pulling the opposite
ends to make the area being nailed match each other as you proceed.
A helper is nice but not really needed. *It will be easy at the
start but grows harder the nearer you approach the opposite end.
The last nail or two may require a clamp to make the members match.

Interesting, when I've been in this situation I've always aligned the
ends and nailed those off, then aligned the midpoints and nailed that,
and then the quarter points, etc. *At a certain point it becomes very
difficult to eliminate the slight difference remaining, so I give up
on the straightening. *This gives me something that is on average
straight, but with perhaps small amounts of curvature between each
nailing point.

So that raises the question of whether one of these ways is better
than the other. *I don't know, any thoughts?

Cheers, Wayne

Hmmm...never heard of doing ti that way. Looks more difficult than
what I described. The method I use is what I learned in a carpentry
course back in the 70s. Biggest member and length I helped with was a
triple member 2x10x30ft for a basement support. Even 2x10 can be
forced straight that way although the last foot or so definitely needs
clamps.

Harry K

OK to air-nail 2x4s together on their flat faces?
 

On 2008-03-17, Harry K wrote:

Hmmm...never heard of doing it that way. Looks more difficult than
what I described.

Well, I skip the clamps, and I give up when I can't readily do it by
hand. So I have a bunch of little deviations along the length of the
two members. With the linear method, you accumulate all the
deviations at the free end, so you have to keep going till the end,
using more and more force as necessary.

Cheers, Wayne

OK to air-nail 2x4s together on their flat faces?
 

On Mar 17, 12:06 pm, Wayne Whitney wrote:
On 2008-03-17, Harry K wrote:

Hmmm...never heard of doing it that way. Looks more difficult than
what I described.

Well, I skip the clamps, and I give up when I can't readily do it by
hand. So I have a bunch of little deviations along the length of the
two members. With the linear method, you accumulate all the
deviations at the free end, so you have to keep going till the end,
using more and more force as necessary.

It's a lot easier to align each end and then pull the center into
alignment.
http://www.ont-woodlot-assoc.org/ima...s-bow-kink.jpg
You can straighten bowed lumber by opposing two warped boards boards
and nailing them together. You can't straighten cupped lumber. You
can straighten crooked lumber by driving nails in a corner of the
bowed board at a 45 degree angle into the other board - that will beat
up an edge, but it will straighten most crooks. Wish it was that easy
in politics. ;)

R