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Anyone have suggestions for a slide hammer style nail puller?
Topic Started: Jul 12 2015, 12:57 PM (595 Views)
cwatkin


I am working on expanding one of my goat pastures through the woods as well as open fields. Goats love to eat brush and trees so having a mix of both is important. For the fences in the woods, I use an electric fence insulator with a nail and nail them into trees. They work great.

The problem is that now that I am expanding the area, I now have dozens of unused insulators nailed to trees within their area. I would like to remove these and re-use them elsewhere. I tried using a claw hammer and pry bar but these will only break the plastic insulator and not even really do a good job of pulling the nail. I think the only thing that will work is something that grips the head of the nail and pulls it straight out like a slide hammer.

Anyone have a good suggestion as to what might work. I was wondering about doing a loaner tool on a small bearing and race puller and reversing the claws inward and seeing if that works. Any other suggestions?

Conor
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myredvert
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myredvert

Can't you fabricate something that puts adequate pressure on the tree while allowing your prying implement to rest on it and not put pressure on the insulator itself?

Like a block of wood (or anything fancier)? :hmm

I recently removed insulator one from a downed electrical service pole and know what you mean about those nasty nails that are typically used in them.

And when you reinstall them somewhere, remember hex head screws/bolts can be a very good thing down the road. ;)
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ScotsBoyNE
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Dont know what type of insulator you are using so this might not work at all - but for similar tight situations where I want to save whatever is nailed on, I try and work a reciprocal-saw blade (one of the nail cutting ones of course) down the back. It will make its own path to the nail, and it can damage whatever you are cutting off - but a little practice may allow you to get them all easily?
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Old Man


ScotsBoyNE
Jul 12 2015, 01:42 PM
Dont know what type of insulator you are using so this might not work at all - but for similar tight situations where I want to save whatever is nailed on, I try and work a reciprocal-saw blade (one of the nail cutting ones of course) down the back. It will make its own path to the nail, and it can damage whatever you are cutting off - but a little practice may allow you to get them all easily?
cant do that. will leave the end of the nail in the tree and damage the tree in years to come
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Old Man


14 different choices on Ebay:

Ebay search link

shortened link to fix viewing issues, MMM
Edited by Metromightymouse, Jul 13 2015, 11:38 AM.
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ScotsBoyNE
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Old Man
Jul 12 2015, 02:14 PM
cant do that. will leave the end of the nail in the tree and damage the tree in years to come
I dare say it will do no more damage that a nail already being stuck in there! When you pull the nail out you are leaving a gaping hole - a wound that can get infected, get fungus growing in it or rot out with rain getting in there. At least the nail end will still be plugging it up!

Either way, I get what you are saying.....
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Old Man


ScotsBoyNE
Jul 12 2015, 05:38 PM
Old Man
Jul 12 2015, 02:14 PM
cant do that. will leave the end of the nail in the tree and damage the tree in years to come
I dare say it will do no more damage that a nail already being stuck in there! When you pull the nail out you are leaving a gaping hole - a wound that can get infected, get fungus growing in it or rot out with rain getting in there. At least the nail end will still be plugging it up!

Either way, I get what you are saying.....
I was not thinking of the 'health of the tree'.
Iwas thinking of the health of a person with a
chain saw in the coming years who hits that
hidden nail, breaks the chain and it wraps around his forearm.
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MR Bill
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Old Man
Jul 12 2015, 02:16 PM
14 different choices on Ebay:
One of the nail puller listed on the E-bay ad will work if you use a short length of 2x4 to get the foot of the puller level with the top of nail.
Edited by Metromightymouse, Jul 13 2015, 11:38 AM.
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Old Man


MR Bill
Jul 12 2015, 09:37 PM
Old Man
Jul 12 2015, 02:16 PM
14 different choices on Ebay:
One of the nail puller listed on the E-bay ad will work if you use a short length of 2x4 to get the foot of the puller level with the top of nail.
and the same 2 X 4 would probably work with a plain old claw hammer.
Edited by Metromightymouse, Jul 13 2015, 11:38 AM.
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cwatkin


I wouldn't have nailed the nails in flush with the insulators had I known I was going to move them in the future. I would have also used deck screws with the T25 bit so they could easily be moved with nothing more than an electric drill. The original setup was put up very quickly without thought to future expansion several years ago and I was just happy it was still holding up as well as it was when I needed to put the area back into service. I have male goats separated from the females including their mothers so they can't breed them. They will head off to the sale in a couple months.

Conor
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ScotsBoyNE
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Old Man
Jul 12 2015, 08:13 PM
I was not thinking of the 'health of the tree'.
Iwas thinking of the health of a person with a
chain saw in the coming years who hits that
hidden nail, breaks the chain and it wraps around his forearm.
I get you point lol!

Ive heard a story of a guy hitting a bullet embedded in a tree and shooting himself. Not good.

Could you grind the heads of the nails (carefully), then slip off the plastic, then take some vice grips to the remainder if the nail?
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Old Man


ScotsBoyNE
Jul 13 2015, 10:19 AM
Could you grind the heads of the nails (carefully), then slip off the plastic, then take some vice grips to the remainder if the nail?
Good idea--if you own a battery powered portable grinder
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Freeman
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The Family Man

I've been known to tape vice grips or pliers and a hammer to remove stubborn nails. That is, if you can get the nail and plastic insulator separated as stated above.
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cwatkin


These insulators are not super expensive and my time is worth more than going through and grinding off nail heads and then pulling the rest out. I am going to see about using a small bearing and race puller with the claws turned inward to remove these. I haven't had time and the goats have enough room for now to eat but I would like to get them removed so that I can re-use them in the future. I plan to use screws unless I know this is there they will stay for good. For now, they are just there stuck in the trees waiting to be removed.

Conor
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