Posted by Graham Knight on November 04, 2003 at 10:28:32:
In Reply to: Re: Nails for planking? posted by Mark Jones on November 04, 2003 at 08:48:57:
Should you choose to use boat nails, you might be well advised to use very small pilot holes. Even in 1" thick fir those boat nails tried to cause a longitudinal rent in the grain of my chines. They are fairly blunt.
Good advice, when I tried them (into Sapele) I foud they not only split the wood but they also bent easily, bronze is a rather soft metal. The bent nails are not easy to remove as they grip too well!
Trouble is, drilling dozens of pilot holes along a chine for instance, while the glue is curing, and your drill bit is clogging with resin and dust....
You'd have to pre-drill all the holes before glueing, then make sure the skin is repositioned accurately so the holes line up. If you have to use fasteners screws are much quicker and easier, at least if you use the kind that don't need pre-drilling otherwise you're back where you started.