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2 people online in the last 1 minutes - 0 members, 0 anon and 2 guests. (Most ever was 44 at 17:01:08 Tue Nov 20 2012) |
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MarshallAk Offline 890 posts Reply |
A couple questions for you old-timers:
(1) I've heard that a nail holding two boards together will hold STRONGER if it doesn't quite go all the way through the 2nd board. Is this true? (2) I've heard that a nail will hold better if you first blunt the tip a little with a hammer before driving it in. Something to do with cutting the wood fiber instead of splitting the fiber to the sides. True...or false? Just curious, as I've heard these rumors repeated for at least the last 40 yrs. Nobody seems to really know for sure whether they are true, or not. Perhaps it is time for an "empirical scientific" test... |
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BobAK Offline 717 posts  Reply |
Hi Marshall, second question I think has to do with not spliting the wood. I remember my grandfather hammering the nail tip at times when he thought there was a chance it would keep the wood from spliting. I have done this and it does seem to help. Now days I prefer using screws on certain projects, Bob
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JOE_S_INDY Offline 1468 posts  Reply |
Right you are, Bob!
Blunting the tip of a nail breaks many of the 'fibers' of the wood that you are driving the nail through. A thin piece of wood, pried apart by a pointy (non-blunted) nail will split about 75% or more times. The down side from breaking the fibers (like with a nail gun) is that the fibers will, due to temperature and moisture, 'pop' a nail in a larger piece of wood (like a deck). As to the first point - split wood holds with less strength and the thinner the wood the more the tendency to split. Now, Question for the day, What does the phrase "Dead as a Door Nail" refer to? |
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nuggets Offline 71 posts Reply |
dead as a door nail
on the old braced and ledger doors the planks were nailed on to the bracers ,using longer nails than the wood thickness combined , the ends of the nails that came through the door were bent over to make it more secure (stop the planks being pulled off) and the bending of the nails was referred to as "deadening " the nails ,thus rendering them dead ! so there it is ! as dead as door nail  |
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JOE_S_INDY Offline 1468 posts Reply |
YOU WIN THE PRIZE, NUGGETS!
JOE |
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MarshallAk Offline 890 posts Reply |
Thanks all....your answers sound logical and correct to me. I've noticed that galvanized nails hold WAY better than regular shiny uncoated nails. I suspect it's because the surface is irregular and "bumpy", creating hundreds of little places for the wood fibers to hold on to. So....on most all my jobs around the house (I'm not a professional carpenter) I've used galvanized 8d and 16d nails. I just bought a nail gun (nailer) to speed things up a little....it gets real tiring swinging a hammer all day...
At the particular store I was at I had to choose between 3" galvanized/ringed nails, or 3 1/4" galvanized, but not ringed, for the nail gun. I went with the shorter nails, figuring they would go mostly thru two 2X4's anyway, (especially if I could drive them below flush a little), and the ringing would help them hold better.. (my compressor will go to 110 psi...I'll crank it up and see what happens) The store also had some of the regular shiny, unplated, bare, unringed nails too, for cheaper....but saving the $20 bucks, or so, on a case of nails is asking for trouble later on, if you ask me. I want nails that are gonna stay put "forever", and not rust out, or pull loose, 10 or 20 yrs down the road. So they cost $20 (+/-) more per case (per 4K)...they're worth every dang penny! It's REALLY cheap insurance to get the better nails to begin with, and not have to put up with problems, or worry, later on. Spending an extra $100-$200 , or so, on a house, for better quality nails, is money WELL spent....! (You are gonna spend $200 G's on a new house.....but....you want to quibble over a $100 larger bill for better nails vs the cheap ones? Common!...just gettem!!!...) They say the contractors in New Orleans are grabbing up all the "HurriQuake" nails they can get...(do a Google search...damn good nails...but factory can't keep up with the demand...) The factory doubled their output...still not good enough to meet the demand... Marshall |
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dcbrewmeister Offline posts Reply |
Those are some "neat" looking nails... but I really have to ask why bother? Most houses in NO are condemmed because they sat under water for way too long and are doomed due to health risk, not structural. The ones that are trashed due to structural damage are damaged so bad, it's easier and cheaper to build new ones. The other issue is insurance. Most people are getting nothing because the insurance companies aren't paying because it was a "flood", not damage from the storm.
Your house is a "structure" and not just one board nailed another. Although I agree with you on the "why argue about $200 on a 200k house" you would be better served spending the $200 on better windows and doors rather than the nail you used. I do agree with you about the galva nails rather than an uncoated one. |
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Aleksei_Chirikov Unavailable posts  Reply |
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dcbrewmeister Offline posts Reply |
Aleksei - I looked them up and checked out the flash show that they had about the nails. Pretty neat looking nail, but let me add to what I was saying about them. Find out what you have to do to make a house hurricane or quake proof (depending on locale) and do everything that you are supposed to. For instance - hurricane straps for roof rafters. One strap for every rafter and every nail hole has a nail in it. Do you know how many I have seen in roofs (while running alarm wiring) that have 2 - 3 nails and thats it?
Nails alone will not save your house from a hurricane or an earthquake from destruction or failure. So unless you are going to go all out to make it quake proof, why bother? |
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Rovingarcher Offline 23 posts Reply |
Door nails were put on doors in the old days and used to Knock .GR
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Aleksei_Chirikov Unavailable posts Reply |
"Never underestimate the power of a driven nail!"
Us boys in the bush are not afraid of earthquakes or hurricanes, but porkies and blackies chewing on stuff. If she breaks, she breaks, if she blows, she blows, got to live with it. I am very happy with them twisted, HD galvanized nails you buy in town. Not the ones "like seen on this or that show", that only dripples the price, but the Joe Blow nails, pictorialy speaking that is. Aleksei |
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