The Bottom Line
Pros
- Easy to hold and use
- Accepts several sizes of popular miniature brass nails
- Easy to store in a toolbox as it is about the size of a pen
Cons
- Easiest to use on vertical surfaces as nails may slide out.
- At six inches in length may not fit in tight spots in smaller dolls houses.
- Not magnetic, so nails must be held in with a paper shim on horizontal surfaces.
Description
- Easy to position to drive tiny nails precisely in place.
- Works with nails on hard or soft woods and mdf, can tap the end with a hammer if necessary
- Drives nails squarely and can be used single handed.
- Much easier than other nailing methods for brads, pins and fine modelling nails.
- Wide variety of makes and models available. Check to see which types of pins / nails your choice accepts.
- Most often found at model ship building suppliers.
Guide Review - Insert Tiny Nails or Brads Easily and Precisely in Models or Dolls Houses
Building scale models, miniatures and dolls houses often requires using tiny, short nails which need to be inserted precisely. Holding them and hammering is difficult if not impossible. Amati's nail nailer, is a push pin nailer which operates by dropping a fine nail or pin head down into the barrel of the nailer, then pressing down on the spring loaded handle to set the nail in place. It easily drives nails into wood, including a seasoned piece of old red oak I tested it on.
The nailer is designed to work best when held sideways to the wood as it is a tool intended for driving short brass nails into planked ship models, but you can easily hold the nail in the barrel with a slip of paper that you pull away once the nailer is in position, if you need to nail into a horizontal surface.
The copper barrel of the nailer will accept heads up to 1/16 of an inch across (about 1.5mm) and and most standard hobby lengths. The tool has a barrel depth of about an inch below the spring mechanism. The tool will accept most standard dressmaker's pins for those of us who use them for dolls house door hinges. The extended length of the tool is 6 inches, so you won't be able to drive brass brads into tapewire in the ceiling or floor of an already built 1:48 scale building, but it certainly could be used for this in buildings with ceilings higher than 6 inches.
The handle is sturdy impact resistant plastic which can be tapped with a hammer if your wood is exceptionally hard. The tool handle fits easily in a number of positions in your palm, allowing the tool to be used single handed or guided with your other hand.
