Seeking advice on nail-pulling: the big ones

[Siouxzan]

Hey all,

I'm going to rip 2 machines down to a bare field again and, in the end, 2 will become 1 (mixing and matching 2 crappy machines to make a beauty). Microbus is a bad influence on me that way.

So, I have a question about the massive, spiral-nails that hold the 3 layers of wood (cell, spacer, and frame) together. Last time I ripped these out, I did more damage than I would have liked. Any advice how to do this in a nondestructive manner?

Thanks!

[emmadog]

Good question. The way I did it was not to pull the nails out first thing. I split the cell frame from the rear layer by using a thin prybar and large flat head screwdrivers and slowly going around the perimeter. If done carefully the layers split with no damage other than slight pry marks which are not visible upon reassembly.
Once the layers are apart the ends of the nails are exposed and this allows you to hammer them back out and then grab them with the claw of a hammer, etc. for complete removal. Alternatively you could cut those ends off flush and reassemble using wood screws.

[pinball wizard]

go carefully .my only advice would be if you could get the head up enough to get vice grips on it ,it might be best to turn them while pulling at the same time .i have used this approach on spiral nails before ,not on pachis ,but on furniture .it seemed to work well for me .

[Microbus99]

Just like Emmadog said, is how I did my machines as well.

Once you've pryed the cell away from the frame (very carefully) you can tap the nails from the tip backwards. On one of my machines I replaced those big twisty nails with wood screws and on another I left them in and didnt even back them out and reused them.

I think on the next one I may just back them out enough to keep the cell face clear and reuse them again. That way it wont even look like it was taken apart from the back (by not using the claw).

[cardwwi]

Emmadog, is how I did my machines.

On my machines I replaced those big twisty nails with stainless steel screws

[drcrippen324]

Darn and i thought i had just found a thread looking for gestapo training

but funnily enough both would sorts of nails are covered by the same principle hammer from the back slightly and then grab with vice grips / mould grips and pull and twist at the same time to remove like emmadog says iv had ot do this on a few nails on modern machines to remove broken nails and worked for me

only diffrence between the gestapo and a pachinko is no matter how many nails yo upull the pachinko aint gonna tell yo unothing

[digital1]

Just a thought...could you seperate the layers enough to cut the nail with a saw? Less stress on the old wood.

[emmadog]

I think that you could but if I remember correctly there was significant pressure from the surrounding nails keeping the wood together. I think by the time it was spread apart enough to get a hacksaw in there, you'd almost have it apart anyway. Unless you had a large enough diameter cutting wheel. I wish they were more like arepachis in that the Satomis and Jan Balls at least, have those two pieces of wood held together not with nails but with large wood screws.

[Siouxzan]

I wish they were more like arepachis in that the Satomis and Jan Balls at least, have those two pieces of wood held together not with nails but with large wood screws.

For sure.
It will certainly be reassembled with wood screws.
Scary twisted framing nails-- how primitive. Didn't they realize that nuts like us would be restoring these 30 or 40 years later?

[emmadog]

So true...