Hello and welcome to Joe Shows How! As you’ve probably heard me preach many times before, it’s important to pre-drill a board prior to driving in a nail or screw. If you don’t, you run the risk of splitting the board. This is especially true when fastening thin, narrow pieces of wood trim. In this week’s video, I share an old carpenter’s trick that I learned from my father: how to drill a pilot hole with a finishing nail.
Thin trim is usually attached with small finishing nails, which require predrilling the pilot holes with a tiny 1/16-inch drill bit. The problem is that a bit that small is notoriously fragile; it doesn’t take much to snap it in two. So, rather than using a tiny drill bit, drill the pilot hole with one of the finishing nails.
Simply chuck the nail into the drill, just as you would a drill bit, and then use moderate pressure and medium speed to drill the pilot holes. If the drill’s chuck doesn’t securely hold the nail, snip off the nail’s head to create a smooth shaft for the chuck’s jaws to grip onto.
I hope you find this tip helpful the next time you’re nailing up thin pieces of trim. And be sure to stay tuned to the end of the video for a Bonus Tip on buying and applying wood glue. Thanks for your support!