Posted by Graham Knight on November 04, 2003 at 01:54:16:
In Reply to: Nails for planking? posted by David McAdam on November 03, 2003 at 18:33:53:
Hi David, as you know I used screws and took them all out afterwards, just relying on a good epoxy joint.
When I first started my Squirt though I bought a load of Bronze boat nails before I realised I didn't need them. If you do decide to use nails for some reason you're welcome to them at a greatly reduced price!
I can only imagine that the instruction to use them is something of a throwback to the days when the Squirt was designed (1956), and for some reason it hasn't been updated.
: On my squirt plans, it says to use 1" no.12 bronze boat nails for fastening the planking along the chine, sheer, keel and battens.
: On the other hand, in the Glen-L "Boatbuilding with Plywood" book, it says that using nails for planking is a "questionable practice".
: I have also heard that you can just use normal nickel plated screws as clamping pressure and then take out all the screws after the epoxy is set. This would result in almost a 100% screwandnail-free boat.
: I plan to sheath the hull with cloth and epoxy, but I don't want to have problems with nails popping out etc..specially on the curvy bits that are under stress...
: So perhaps some of you may have more experience of fasteners than I have, and can advise me on which type of fastening I should go for, bearing in mind the price of bronze these days, which I would have to import to Ireland from the UK.