A carpenter working alone can hold a header, blocking or similar framing member in place for final nailing with a few bent nails. I use 8d nails, driven about a third of their length into the top edge of the work and then bent 90°. These ears will support the piece until the first nail is set.
—Craig Savage, Hope, ID
Edited and Illustrated by Charles Miller
From Fine Homebuilding #7
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I prefer to use a hand trigger clamps. How old is this tip anyway?
This originally appeared in issue #7, the February/March issue in 1982. I guess they aren't getting enough good tips these days so they are dredging up old, and sometimes obsolete, ones. This tip is only 36 years old.
wow. otherwise you'd have 2 guys on a single blocking member? what is this a church? imagine double 12d's sunk together, twisted and bent with your claw and you're hanging floor joists - routine stuff. Just don't hang out under it .