Ring Shank Nails

Shuriko

I went to Home Depot to pick up a box of Grip Rite hot dip galvanized 8d ring shank nails and they only had one box. I looked into the box and could barely make out the nails. But it appears that the rings around the nail is only half the length of the nails (lower half towards the pointed end). They also had 2 nails stapeled to the display that also showed the rings only 1/2 of the entire shaft. Is this how ring shank nails are made? It could be that the hot dip galvanization was covering the rings but it seemed consistent with the nails in the plastic container. I may be seeing incorrectly but shouldn't the rings run the entire lenght of the nail shaft?

jschaben

The ring shanks for my framing nailer are only ringed for about 1/3 to 1/2 the shank. Don't know what you are nailing but for extreme hold you may want to try screw shanks.

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John Schaben

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Thurman

The nails you found were properly ring0-shanked. Remember that you are using the lower 1/3--1/2 of the nail to hold the material that you are actually nailing on.

Shuriko

I will go with the 6d ring shank nails. My home is old so the supporting element for the siding are 3/4 inch battens running horizontal to the 2x studs. The nail portion with the rings may not be entirely embedded in the battens but for sure the 8d nails will not considering only the lower 1-inch or so has the holding power.

Thanks all for responding. I thought my eyes were deceiving me when it looked like only a portion of the nails had the rings. What is a bit strange is that, IIRC, some of the recommendations by the cedar industry is to use 8d ring shanks for cedar siding with only plywood as the holding element. Most cases you will not be hitting stud along with the plywood, so the portion of the 8d with the ring will simply go right through the plywood. The nail has to pull out a bit before the rings play a part of providing the holding power.

cleveman

That part about the cedar siding didn't make sense to me. I would think a shorter nail would suffice if you were nailing into sheathing only.

I've tried to explain to people why you need a decking screw with no threads on the screw for the end of the screw = the thickness of the decking. So if you're screwing down 5/4" decking, you should look for a screw >/= 5/4 plus 1 inch and it should have 5/4" of smooth shank at the top.

What happens is you screw down a deck board and there is an 1/8" gap between the board the joist. As the screw pulls down, it eliminates the gap. If the screw has threads all the way to the head,however, it will not eliminate the gap.

And I think the same is true for ring-shanked nails, only it happens instantaneously as the nail is pneumatically driven. If the rings are from point to head, then there can be some gap between what you are nailing down and what you are nailing it down to.

Can you dig it?