Pneumatic brad and pin nailers are amazingly useful tools, but you can run out of brads or pin nails at the most inopportune time, which can be terribly frustrating.

This can easily happen because some nailers have such small viewing windows, it’s tough to know how many nails are left.

To solve this problem, I color the last few nails in a clip with a felt-tip marker.

The markings don’t interfere with the firing mechanism, and when I see the colorfully marked nails in the nailer's window, I know I’m about to run out before the fact.

— Glenn Ravdin; South Hero, Vt.

Tips & Techniques provided by Fine Homebuilding.
©2010 The Taunton Press

To contact Fine Homebuilding, email Christina Glennon.

Get NAHB BuilderBooks 2010 Virtual Publications Catalog Online

The NAHB 2010 Publications Catalog from NAHB BuilderBooks is available online.

Presented in a virtual format as part of the NAHB BuilderBooks effort to go green and streamline delivery, the catalog includes publications and products to help building industry professionals ramp up for a successful year as the industry and the economy begin to recover.

The materials in the catalog, written by industry leaders in various fields of residential construction, feature publications and products about accounting, estimating, business management, green building, sales and marketing, safety, construction codes, 50+ housing, multifamily housing, construction management remodeling and more.

Some of the newest publications in the catalog include “Social Media for Home Builders,” the “National Green Building Standard Commentary” and “Paper Trail: Systems and Forms for a Well-Run Remodeling Company, Second Edition.”

To view the virtual catalog, click here.