Recycling

I am a scavenger, a reclaimer, a recycler or what ever term you choose to call me. I hunt skips, dumps, even warehouses for wood, metal, glass, plastics and anything else that can be reused. Recently, while breaking up pallets for a project I noticed that there was an awful lots of clean nails. Clean as in not rusty. There are even more dirty nails. They all have one thing in common. There all bent. As someone who likes to recycle everything, I was wondering if there is anyway to clean the dirty nails and straighten them for reuse?

Any help would be appreciated.

Gadget

Reply to
Gadget
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Gadget wrote: (clip) I was wondering if there is anyway to clean the dirty nails and straighten them for reuse? ^^^^^^^^^^^ You might try the method I used on the farm, where we reused bent nails 'cause we usually didn't have any new ones. 1.) Place nail on its side, with the bow *up*. 2. Strike a few gentle blows with hammer.

However, my experience with pallets is that often the nails are hardened, and difficult to straighten. To remove rust, a bath in muriatic acid should do it. Or, you could do what we always did on the farm: just use them with the rust on.

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

Coca cola is a good rust remover - get the cheap 15p/2l stuff from Sainsbury's

Reply to
Squid

And lo, it came about, that on Mon, 29 Sep 2003 06:44:26 GMT in rec.crafts.metalworking , "Leo Lichtman" was inspired to utter:

The rational we used was "The rust makes for a rough surface, so it will hold better."

Reply to
pyotr filipivich

In my experience, once a nail has bent, then you straightened out, it bends as soon as you hit it again most of the time.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Smith

Nails get much of their strength from the drawing of the wire from which the nail is made. Once forced past yield (bent), that strength is lost at the point of the bend. The only way to get it back would be to draw the nail wire again, which is impractical since the nail is already cut, headed, and pointed.

You could cut the nail at the point of the bend, put a new point on it, and have a strong *short* fat nail. But there's usually little call for a short fat nail.

Gary

Reply to
Gary Coffman

If anything, the additional cold work would increase the yield strength. A more likely explanation is that even a miniscule kink will make the nail much more prone to column buckling.

Ned Simmons

Reply to
Ned Simmons

Bob Smith wrote: In my experience, once a nail has bent, then you straightened out, it bends as soon as you hit it again most of the time. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^ Funny,I'm not a particularly good nailer, but I have never noticed that problem. And I have salvaged my share of rusty bent nails from old boards. First, make sure the nail is *straight.* Second, when you hit it, be sure to hit is *square.*

And, this applies to new nails as well as straightened ones--if the nail just wants to bend, grip it firmly, midway between the wood and head, with a pair of pliers. This reduces the "column bending" tendency enormously.

If nothing else works, just bend the nail over and start another.

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

It doesn't, because you've stressed it past yield. Cold work increases strength as long as you stay below yield stress. But once you cross that line, the well ordered grain structure the cold working has produced suddenly becomes disordered at the point where it yielded.

I'll agree with that.

Gary

Reply to
Gary Coffman

Cold work by definition involves exceeding the yield point and rearranging the grain structure.

"A material is considered to be cold worked if its grains are in a distorted condition after plastic deformation is completed."

More here:

Ned

Reply to
Ned Simmons

Besides the obvious "huh?", ;) I've never heard of work *softening*. Period. Work hardening, sure...

The column buckling point sounds correct.

Tim

-- "That's for the courts to decide." - Homer Simpson Website @

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Reply to
Tim Williams

Sorry, I think we have a terminology problem. Cold work involves exceeding the elastic limit of the material. Yield strength is further out on the stress-strain curve, and is the point where the material fails.

What I'm saying is that when a nail bends while being driven, the outside of the radius of the bend reaches actual yield, not just plastic deformation. This weakens the nail in that area.

Gary

Reply to
Gary Coffman

I have spoken to others about this and there answer to the nail straightening was to get a cast iron block. Then drill a various amount of holes of all sizes to accommadate the nails. Then heat the nail until red/ white hot. Then force the nail into the appropiate hole on the dye until straight, then temper with cold water. Opinions?

Gadget

Reply to
Gadget

until red/

Buy a new nail, the recycling process is proving too expensive.

Reply to
Gavin Gillespie

No, the yield point is the point that divides the elastic and plastic regions of the stress/strain curve. What you're referring to as the yield point is tensile strength or ultimate tensile strength (UTS).

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Ned

Reply to
Ned Simmons

I tend to agree. However, I have been straightening nails for decades for re-use, and, I find that while they MIGHT have more of a tendency to re-bend, a much bigger factor is whether or not I can hit them straight on. A good hammer, and, good technique goes a LONG way towards keping those nails straight and in the wood. It requires some practice and attention to get to a point where one can hit the head of the nail square on and firmly...but it is a very useful skill to develop. One thing that helped me quite a bit was that my father used to have me pull out, straighten and re-use every nail I bent. It was quite an incentive to learn to drive them straight. Regards Dave Mundt

Reply to
Dave Mundt

I only had to do this to the nails that were for the side of the house upon which I was working. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Reply to
Gerald Miller

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