Attaching wooden battens to the metal frames in a narrowboat

[Malarky]

Isn't the other problem with screws that the heads can pop? I know this has happened with my floorboads.

 

Modern metals ,brittle stainless, soft brass? You end up useing modern tools, such as a battery drill with torque settings and screwdriver bit , to avid twisting the tops off, by wrenching too hard. By hand difficult screws are wrenched in, where as with the drill, you zoom them in and out, and the speed somehow cuts them in, and the tourque setting prevents you overdoing it.

Once the heads snap removeing the remaining screw for replacement is a fair struggle, and something that nowdays, people seem to ignore, and pretend never happened. I suppose modern methods allocate one or two seconds per screw, so ten minutes removeing one...well it just gets lunched.

If I ever felt it safe to fit boats again, I'd definately take the nail gun option visa vis battens. I'm not an enthutiast for nailing through the actual "skin" of the craft though, I think the less holes in your boat the better!

[blackrose]

Suggests to me that the screws weren't big enough, or not enough of them

 

Tim

 

Probably. It's only happened in one place and I never noticed it for the two years I was living on bare floorboards. Sods law it happened about a week after I stuck underlay and carpet tiles down!

[james46]

I was thinking to fit my battens to the steel with self tappers but thinking would it be better to drill and tap machine screws instead 

[RAP]

This is the sort of screw you need. Available in different lengths.

 

https://www.toolstation.com/techfast-heavy-duty-self-drilling-torx-roof-screw/p96795?utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&mkwid=_dc&pcrid=&pkw=&pmt=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMInsP71sL7gAMVTeBRCh0c5AjnEAQYGSABEgJ37PD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

[BEngo]

Tek screws are good, but are designed to hold roofing sheets to fairly thin purlins.

  If you are going into 3mm or thicker  steel it pays to drill pilot holes in the steel.  It also helps if you can lubricate the tap section.  Trefolex or similar is good.

 

Always buy good quality  ones.  Cheap chinese carp tends to seize and  break off in the hole and is then a grinder job.

[GUMPY]

I used a nail gun to fix the battens in Parglena. Once I had it set correctly so it didn't split the wood it was really quick and easy.

I believe that @ditchcrawler s boat was done the same way.

You do need ear defenders as it's like firing a gun in an enclosed space.

[ditchcrawler]

2 hours ago, GUMPY said:

I used a nail gun to fix the battens in Parglena. Once I had it set correctly so it didn't split the wood it was really quick and easy.

I believe that @ditchcrawler s boat was done the same way.

You do need ear defenders as it's like firing a gun in an enclosed space.

O I cant remember now, cabin sides and roof were battened prior to spray foam but the hull sides were just steel as they were quite deep, I drilled and tapped them. I did see a boat where the battens were nailed to the cabin sides and then the ends of nails ground off afterwards where they stuck out through the cabin sides.