Wooden nails? Who’d of thunk it?

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dephill

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Just saw this short on YouTube,
Pretty cool!
Not looked into them any further yet mind.

 
Similar looks and function but very different process.
No drilling, no glue, just shot out of a nail gun and “lignin welded” in the process.
...looks as tho they were pre-drilled to me. Cannot imagine that going into timber without. Lignin 'welding' also seems a misuse of terms.....friction seems to be involved rather than melting.....?
 
Friction welding is a thing, friction is what does the melting.
The idea with these is that the lignin in the wood and the (added) lignin in the nails melts due to the friction of the nail penetrating the wood. When it sets again the pullout strength is (apparently) 4x as strong as the equivalent metal nail.
Did you watch the video? There’s no way the holes were pre drilled, he just holds up the nail gun and shoots one in.
 
I remember seeing an item on I think Tomorrows World, showing my age now!
Someone had invented nylon staples for applications where ordinary steel ones would rust. Principle was that if you get something moving fast enough it can penetrate things in a way you wouldn't think possible.
To demonstrate the idea they had a guy fire a section of ordinary wax candle out of a, presumably unchoked, shotgun. It went straight through a two inch plank, leaving a pretty neat hole the diameter of the candle.
No idea if the staples took off, but interesting demo.
 
Our house in Tasmania is built about 1860.
The original smaller section.
It's all timber. Split rafters, pit sawn studs and plates.
Top wall plates dovetailed together, studs morticed into top and bottom plates.
Flooring pit sawn with some later circular sawn.
Shingles still under the corrugated iron.
Few iron nails. Many wooden dowels ½ to ¾ inch diameter, cut flush
 
From your link:-
It is driven into a hole bored through two (or more) pieces of structural wood.

As pointed out to me earlier in the thread, these things are fired into the substrate.

Find out more here.

Cross section of the nail inserted:-
wood nail.jpg

Nail - beech, timber - pine



Can't be used in some hardwoods without drilling first
To get the 2 items being joined into close contact they would have to be clamped first.

Brian
 
But what are the practical applications, besides boats/rust protection?
e.g. why would a DIYer, Builder, Woodworker need to use these?
 
I guess anywhere you might want a better finish look than a standard steel nail? Although probably non structural. I notice in the video he says 4x pullout strength but doesn’t mention shear strength.
I guess you could use for fencing, decking, timber cladding….?
 

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