Expert: Jamie Yocono - 3/18/2010

Question
Jamie,

I have a wood cabinet with a thin back stapled very firmly that I want to either remove or partially cut so I can put my stereo inside. I tried removing the staples, but they break off. I am inclined to cut, but I have no carpentry experience. I do have access to saws, but I'm afraid of butchering it. Please let me know if I can send you a picture.

Thank you,
Paul
Ohio University '89
"long live Court Street"

Answer
Paul,

Since you said you have no carpentry experience, I wouldn't recommend cutting that back out of your cabinet. As long as it's only stapled in place, I would simply use a hammer and break it out, hammering from the front to the back. It might help to have a scrap piece of wood, hitting that with the hammer, as opposed to hammering on the back itself.

Once you've removed it, pull out the staples. If they break, so be it. Pull them out with a set of channel lock pliers, using the long nose of them as a lever for coaxing them out. If you just grab the stable and pull it, it will break. But if you grab it low, close the the wood, and pry it, using the pliers as a lever, they will come out a little more easily. Sort of how you pull a nail out using the leverage of the back side of a hammer.

Yes, you could cut the back out, but you risk cutting into the inside of the cabinet, which would be bad. And then you have the edge of the back to contend with - so you'll still have the staples there. Hammering the back out might loosen some of those staples, which would be the ideal thing to do.

Do you remember the old "Court Street Crawl"? We'd start at one end of the street, and have a beer in each bar. By the time you got to the end of the street, you'd be crawling.... ahh, those were the days. I miss Athens, it was a great place to spend four years. :)

Good luck, hope this helps.

Jamie Yocono
Wood It Is! Custom Cabinetry
Las Vegas, NV
www.wooditis.com
My woodworking blog: www.wooditis.blogspot.com