Self-tapping screws or nails. What and when to use
In the private sector where I live, in the summer, usually someone builds, rebuilds and repairs something.
Until a few years ago, all these cases were accompanied by the frequent clatter of hammers. There was a feeling that a flock of woodpeckers had arrived. Although you can't do without them, the forest is nearby - less than a kilometer - and sometimes you can see this bird next to the house, enthusiastically hammering along the trunk of a tree.
So for a couple of years now I have noticed that they began to knock less and less, hammering in nails and more and more often buzz, twisting the screws, sometimes with a very nasty squeak.
How justified is such a massive transition to self-tapping screws instead of nails?
The question is actually not as simple as it might seem at first glance. Here you need to think carefully about where and what to use.
Tool. To hammer in any nail you only need a hammer. But to tighten the self-tapping screw, you already need a screwdriver. Of course, you can turn it with a screwdriver, but on the second self-tapping screw, the hand itself begins to look for a screwdriver or drill.
By convenience it seems like it’s obvious that you can screw the self-tapping screw almost anywhere, where you can’t swing a hammer.
By speed, in my opinion, it is about the same here, although someone can hammer in a nail with one blow, and someone turns the screws at the maximum speed of the tool.
But still, not these things determine what to use nails or screws.
The nails are made of a sufficiently soft metal that allows them to withstand shear loads well. Wood is still softer than iron and under such loads the nail will bend a little, but the boards will continue to hold.
Self-tapping screws are hardened and, under shear loads, they can simply burst at the junction of the boards and can no longer hold anything.
But the self-tapping screws certainly hold better for separation. If the board nailed down can still be torn off, then the screws only need to be unscrewed.
It is believed that the structure assembled on self-tapping screws is easier to dismantle. It sounds logical, but when this structure will stand for several years in a wet, sometimes dry environment, it will be difficult to disassemble it. Some of the screws may burst, some will tear off the cap when unscrewing, some will fall out, and some will get stuck on the contrary.
I also noticed that if the boards on a wooden fence are screwed on with self-tapping screws, after a couple of years they begin to dangle, and if they are nailed, then nothing happens to them. Often raw boards go to the fence and when they dry out, and on the fence the boards will be differently drier than freshly sawn ones, the nails continue to be held as well, but the screws need to be tightened.
Outcome
So, as Krosh from Smeshariki said at one time: "Everyone needs nails"!
In some ways, he is right - in wooden structures, where the load goes to the cut, it is better to use nails.
Although if finances do not strain, now there are structural screws that seem to be it is good to withstand the load on the cut, although one such self-tapping screw costs as much as a kilogram of nails, but they are there is.
Well, if you need to fix something, where the load is only for separation, then of course it is better to find nothing better than self-tapping screws.
In general, everything is as usual - "turn on the head" and look at our capabilities.
Thanks for reading. I would be glad to have your support in the form of a like and a subscription to the channel. And see other publications on the channel.
Alexander.
P.S. I also invite you to your site.