Ikea Nail-Driving Utensil
I am an engineer, so I admire the way Ikea consistently uses a small set of fastening systems, all suitable for untrained labor. Ikea has even invented this tiny plastic device to protect customers from smashing their fingers with tack hammers.
A pinch of the clever friction-grips opens a small crevice in this utensil, and it neatly grips any small nail. Place it against a wall, tap the nailhead, and the nail goes in quite straight. Remove it and you are ready to safely hang a picture. The ergonomics are brilliant, the understanding of process is good, the operative results are excellent, and many innocent fingers go unsmashed. A real triumph of Swedish design!
Best of all, this plastic utensil is so cheap that it's as free as hotel matches. In fact, if you venture into Ikea and talk knowledgeably about Ikea things you have built, and then ask for them for fasteners, they will commonly hand them over for free. And they're good components, too: you can build whatever you want. Please don't wreck this good deal for the rest of us by abusing Ikea's patience.
-- Zarko Vujovic
[Since Ikea is Ikea, this tiny plastic widget must surely have a cute Swedish name and some parts number, although it costs nothing. Does anyone know that data? Please tell me. Even "Ikeahacker" is stumped.-- bruces@well.com]
Favorite (15)
hairmare
it will have a cute swedish name, but absolutely no part number since ikea only does names.
Tiny
Great gadget for those of us that are no longer trusted by the spouse to drive nails in the house!
And just want to say thanks to Bruce for his work here - not a fan of the Gibson bag (the review of the item itself) but the abuse from some posters has been ridiculous - this is a free site full of good stuff - we get 1 odd review and suddenly the sky is falling!
Please keep up the good work guys - checking CT is a high point of my day sometimes (which says something about me, but still, I think you get the point....)
tooldork
I use cardboard to hold the nail in place.
Carl Beeth
The primary purpose of this tool is making sure you put the nails at the right distance from the edge when nailing back panels on Ikea furniture. Of course that in no ways remove anything from its fingers protection bonus use.
James
Far be it from me to rain on your parade, but while working as a furniture assembler at IKEA I did not once use this item.
It is just quicker to nail in nails like a normal person.. and yes, I frequently smashed my fingers!
PaulD
James points out an advantage of being an amateur -- one can choose to value non-smashed fingers over speed.
JimH
20 years ago there was a similar plastic holder for small nails that came with boxes of brads and I still have a couple of them. They were shaped more like a stick than a wedge...same principle though - holds small nails until started without risk of hitting your fingers.
Pete D.
I use scraps of genuine horse leather and ballistic nylon.
Louis Bullard
I just use a pair of needle-nose pliers if I don't feel like getting my fingers in between brad and hammer.
hahaha
i dont need this tool as i just force my helper to hold the nail.........so i never smash my fingers
KC
I have one of these nail holders and it's very handy:
http://www.micromark.com/NAIL-HOLDER,7356.html
Carl Lumma
I have a better idea: don't use nails. They're inferior technology. Screws provide a much stronger join, which can be undone at any time.
tudza
Having put together several bits of Ikea furniture, I'd say their hardware is spotty at best.
This one round table that expanded had screws to hold on hinges. The screw heads were not as large as the holes in the hinge plates.
Dressers. One is pretty solid, the other is falling apart. The start of the falling apart business was all the bearings falling out of the drawer rails.
As Steely Dan says, "It's cheap, but it's not free"
hagus
hairmare, since it isn't furniture, it won't have a cute name. However, all Ikea products have article numbers, and most of their spare parts have part numbers.
Brent
Nice tool! Particularly for the tool challenged like I'd guess many IKEA customers are.
And if your IKEA is like my IKEA you'll find a wall of bins containing assembly hardware in the furniture pickup area, free for the taking with no need to social engineer your way into some $0.0053 piece of plastic.
Ted
tudza opined:
"Having put together several bits of Ikea furniture, I'd say their hardware is spotty at best."
I agree completely. So the first thing we do is replace all the screws and bolts and nuts and whatever with higher quality stuff from Home Depot/Ace/Lowes/Menards/True Value etc.
I think IKEA furniture is a superb value. I just with they would supply superb hardware and raise their prices 50c or $1 per unit. Of course if they did I'd lose
one of my excuses for 'going to the hardware store' :-}
Ted
Leman
If it doesn't have a name, let's give it one: SPIKHALLA is the (probably incorrect) interweb translation for nail holder.
Leman
Billy
Its name and parts number = Nail holder 10mm pp/black 105494
dnkn
Nail holder = Spikhållare. There you have it.
Samuel
Use a clamping wooden clothespin. It probably will work as well.