dadiOH wrote:
David Combs wrote:
In article ,
dadiOH wrote:
Phisherman wrote:
On Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:52:58 -0400, "JohnnyC" wrote:

Hello,
I need to nail up some exterior trim. I'd like to use my PC 16
gauge finish nailer. The PC nails are galvanized, but on the box
it says "not for exterior use'. Any idea what I could use? By the
way, should I be using a 16 gauge finish nailer for exterior trim?
I use it all the time inside the house.
thanks.


Use galvanized indoors or for birdhouses. Get stainless steel
fasteners for outdoor use and forget about ugly rusty streaks.
There's a big difference in durability between hot dipped galvanized
steel and electroplated galvanized steel.
Stupid question, maybe: which of the two is more durable, and maybe
also something about a "why"?

Hot dipped because the non-rusting protective zinc coating is *MUCH*
thicker.

When someting is electroplated, the plating material winds up very, very
thin. It is very easy to scratch thru it - a hammer hitting the head of a
nail may well do that - and once the zinc is breached the steel is exposed
to the elements and will begin to oxidize.

Electroplated zinc fasteners are just mickey mouse junk that seemed to
show up about the time big box stores appeared. No spec allows their
use. And you don't even do scratch them to make them rust. One day my
neighbor asked for some help and he loves home depot. I bought a box of
roofing nails just by grabbing the box not realizing they weren't real
roofing nails. When we got back home I got distracted and pushed them
through the railing on the dead end of the deck. I found the box about
a month later and the fake roofing nails were all rusted and stuck
together.


The down side of hot dipping is that the dipped object will have a rough
surface...maybe even bumps of zinc here and there. Sometimes nails will be
stuck together too (by the zinc). I've never found either to be a problem
although with finish nails you may wind up with a slightly larger, non-round
hole to fill.

Generally, electroplating results in an enhanced appearance of something but
provides little protection for the underlying material.

BTW, when dealing with gold there are two types of plating...EGP (electro
gold plate) and RGP (rolled gold plate). The former is self explanatory,
the latter involves physically applying a thin layer of gold over the base
metal. The RGP is usually much thicker but not necessarily as gold is
extremely malleable and can be squished down to a thinness of one molecule.
If the weight of the gold in the RGP comprises at least 1/20th of the weight
of the object to which it is applied, it is "gold filled". Such an object
contains 50-100,000 times more gold than EGP. Gold filled objects are quite
durable; unfortunately, you see them much less frequently nowadays. Not
watches at least.