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Making and Use of Wire Nails
If you are curious to acquire more knowledge about wire nails, you are at the right place. As unique and useful wire nails are, your curiosity to learn more about these is justified. Well, there is so much for you to explore in this regard. Let’s get started.
What are Wire Nails
The nails manufactured from the coil of wire are known as wire nails. Wire nails are widely used in household projects like hanging a mirror, picture, or something like that. In fact, wire nails could be used for nearly everything that involves securing, constructing, etc.
Specifically, the wire nails are used for heavy-duty and rough woodwork. These are made by drawing coils through multiple dies until they are shaped into the desired diameter. These nails came into the market in the 1800s and were successful enough to be used as an alternative to cut nails. These are available in various sizes, like 25mm, 40mm, 63mm, 75mm, 100mm, 125mm, and 150mm.
When talking about the looks of wire nails, you would have seen that these are not attractive. Therefore, you cannot use them for delicate work or finishing. Another caution that you must know is that, if you are hammering wire nails into hardwood, the wood might split.
Making of Wire Nails
The manual nail-making is completely off the question because this way, we cannot ensure quality. Therefore, nail-making machines are used worldwide for the manufacturing of wire nails. These machines are used in the production of both special and conventional nails. When talking about the structure of these machines, they adopt the plunger structure. This type of structure buffers noises and enhances the overall speed of nail manufacturing.
In order to produce wire nails, a huge roll of wire is placed into a machine. The machine threads the wire and cuts it into the desired length. After that, the point and head of the nail are created by the same machine. Finally, after going through a series of other programs, the wire nails are collected into a bin.
The same machine could be used for manufacturing nails of different sizes. You just have to alter the adjustment of the machine and it would produce the wire nails of the size that you desired. One of the important parts of these machines is the polishing drum. The task of this drum, as the name suggests, is to polish the wire nails if they get rusty during the process of making. For this, ½ liter kerosene is added, and the machine takes about 40 minutes to an hour for polishing the wire nails.
That is how the wire nails are manufactured. If we sum up the whole making of wire nails into three steps, it would include wire drawing, nail making, nail polishing, and meter and packing. No matter how tiny wire nails look from the outside, the process that it takes to make them is quite intense. The good quality nail keeps its shape no matter how forcefully it is hammered. That is exactly what is kept in mind while creating wire nails.
Types of Wire Nail
Depending upon the size and shape that wire nails come in, these can be categorized into various types. You would be able to get the best results only if you know which type of wire nail could be used for which type of task. Let’s acknowledge you with the wire types and their purpose.
Oval Wire Nail
These type of wire nails suits well for joinery work. That is because oval wire nails can easily be hammered into the surface. This way, the overall appearance won’t be affected.
Tack Wire Nail
The Tail is shorter in length and has a flat and wide head. It is mostly used for stretching fabric onto wood and fixing carpet to floorboards.
Round Wire Nail
These nails are larger and are used for carpeting things where appearance is not that important. Round wire nails ensure strength which could result in the splitting of wood.
Panel pin
It is called a pin because of its lightweight. This type of wire nail is mostly used for cabinet making and fixing small things together.
Round Head Nail
Round Head Nails are probably the strongest types of wire nails, which is why they are used for punching into a surface. The size of these nails mostly varies from 12-150 mm.
Spring Head Roofing Nail
These types of wire nails are mostly used for corrugated sheeting to timber. They ensure the smooth and fine fixing of timber.
Annular Nail
This type of wire nail comes in handy where very strong joints are required. An annular nail ensures a tight grip because of its sharp ridges around the shank.
With the variety of sizes and shapes available in wire nails, users don’t feel like going for any other type. Well, wire nails are popular because of many reasons not to mention their strength, rigidity, durability, and much more. The sharp tip of the wire nail makes it a perfect choice for every type of task. Moreover, the manufacturing of wire nails requires relatively less time when compared to others.
Final Words About Wire Nails
We have had a detailed discussion about wire nails and making them worthy. If not to you, wire nails are definitely the most popular type of nails among constructors or carpenters. And we have already discussed why that is so.
In order to make sure that the quality of wire nails does not get affected due to the weather conditions, these are covered with a galvanized coating.