Ask Dr. Steel: “What Is a Stainless Collated Nail?”

If you do a lot of construction work you may already know the wonders of using automatic nail guns to help cut through the tedious task of nailing. What once took hours can now take just a few minutes thanks to these wonders which drives nails in perfectly every time. The advantages of this method of nailing only get better when you use stainless collated nails to get the job done. You probably are already aware of the benefits of using a stainless nail – it doesn't rust and resists corrosion for starters and the typical stainless nail will outlast any material it is used with! Now you can combine these benefits with a nail gun and achieve the best of both worlds by using stainless collated nails for all your nailing projects.

Collated stainless nails come in a wide variety of sizes and like regular nails they come in many different types depending on the project you are using it on. The biggest difference is that instead of the nails being loose in a box they are all aligned perfectly on a strip or coil that can feed into an automatic nail gun. The stainless collated nails feed into a hopper on the nail gun and are driven by either pneumatic or electrical force into the material being nailed for a clean, even strike every time.

While stainless collated nails will cost you more for the convenience factor of them being ready to lock and load, the time savings will be astronomical. The deck that you spent what seemed like the entire summer nailing together can take less than a day now thanks to the staple gun and your collated nails. The same goes for finishing work, fences, wooden stairs even Fido's doghouse!

Depending on the brand of nail gun you purchase you may have to buy special types of collated stainless nails. Since every manufacturer tends to be different it is best to purchase your nail gun locally or stick with a brand you know is available at your local hardware store. Otherwise you could find yourself in a predicament of having to order all of your collated stainless nails and having them shipped which can add up to big bucks for freight.

Another often less thought of advantage to using stainless collated nails is that they have an almost unlimited shelf life. You can pick up a coil of collated stainless nails that have been sitting on a shelf for years without worrying about rust or corrosion of the nail. The same can't be said of typical galvanized nails which after a few years of sitting idly by will rust together and have to be thrown out.

Big projects can be cut down to size with the power of a nail gun and stainless collated nails . Not only will you get the benefit of the stainless steel nail and its awesome ability to outlast just about everything else, but you will also save your valuable time and energy by using nails that are automatically fed and driven into the surface with all you having to do is push a button.

How can a home improvement project get any easier?