Any try the Sears Craftsman Nextec hammer?

[Stephen Tashiro]

Has anyone tried the Sears Craftsman Nextec electric hammer?

I'm planning to re-roof a storage building and I'd like to use 3/4" roofing nails so the nails won't penetrate through the bottom of the sheathing. This is the way the old roof has been put on. But I find it hard to hold such a short nail to get it started when I use a regular hammer. Wonder if the Sears hammer could do the job? Also wonder if the head of a roofing nail would fit the hammer.

[harry strasil]

two pieces of small dowel, with a rubber band holding them together in the middle and sand off one end of each to a point and file a groove all the way around about a half inch in from the end. Slide the nail in and hit it, then pull the dowel holder off and finish it. Or use a thin flat scrap, drill a hole a tad smaller than the nail, then slit it with a thin saw or bandsaw. Or just get a small magnet on the end of a handle.

[Bill White]

If I can't use an air nailer, I ain't doin' ANY roofin'.
Bill

[Dan Gill]

If I can't do it indoors, I'm not doing roofing! Not until about November, anyway.

[Stephen Tashiro]

I agree that August is not good roofing weather!

I'd as soon pinch my fingers a little starting the nails by hand as fool with dowels or pliers or other manually assisted nail starting methods. I want a fully automatic method. (Maybe I would fool with two things that slipped over your fingers like artificial fingernails and held the nail. Is that a known invention?)

I like the big heads on old fashioned roofing nails, easy to see if they are lying flat and easy to find when I go to dabbing tar over them. The roofing nails I've seen for nail guns don't have big heads.

Besides, I'm a hobby guy, not a serious roofer. What other kind of person would be asking about an electric hammer?

[Ed Labadie]

Roofing nails should be long enough to go through the sheathing, this helps prevent the nail from backing out over time.

Ed

[george wilson]

Ed has a point,and not just the point sticking through your sheathing. Ever notice how the long nails in outdoor wooden steps or decking back out? They have to be driven back in. You can't do that with your roofing nails.

[Jason White]

Yep. 1-1/4" hot-dipped roofers are pretty standard.

JW

Roofing nails should be long enough to go through the sheathing, this helps prevent the nail from backing out over time.

Ed

[Stephen Tashiro]

I haven't had any problems with my other 3/4 nailed roofs, so I'm not persuaded to change my nail size. The roofing material will probably fail before the nails go.

I took a 3/4" roofing nail to Sears and tried putting in the Nextec hammer. It will fit in the barrel but it will not sit straight. The magnets in the hammer head are on the side of the barrel. So the nails is pulled to one side and sits in the barrel canted. I suppose that you could stab the end of the nail into the roof and maneuver the hammer to straighten the nail in the barrel, but it would be more trouble than it's worth. I think the hammer would work better with longer nails.

[Rick Potter]

Stephan,

My buddy the framer has a really neat hammer. It has a rare earth magnet in it to hold nails. NOTE...this is not the type with the magnet that holds large nails in a groove at the top. This one must be made for roofing, as the magnet is set dead center in the face of the hammer head. He uses it for roofing nails, and swears by it. I don't know what brand it is, but it is definitly a professional model, arout $30.

Rick Potter

[george wilson]

Maybe if the roofing nails are under the shingles and don't get wet,they will not back out. the new nails on my wooden steps sure back out,though.

[Richard Magbanua]

Honestly,
I chuckled a bit when I first saw the commercial for that. That's something that eventually resides in the same drawer with the auto tape measure, battery scissors and auto clamp. Besides, how many nails would you be able to coax in before the battery died? Maybe it really is a useful tool.

[Stephen Tashiro]

I know that I will eventually buy an electric hammer. I plead special circumstances. I am a hammer collector. (Really)

I hope not to be walking on my roof as much as people walk on steps.