For personal projects, a mix, pretty much what others said above. In the theater, when I'm teaching students who have never seen a hammer or drill before, we use screws. I tried nails once, but it was painful watching them get bent all over, missing strikes with the hammers, and any time something was built wrong...oh the horror!
And hopefully a class in driving a nails subset from what is used on scenery including staples or
brad nailers.
Clout nail, how to and what is needed in back plate, to pneumatics, each part I hope a good education because as with lighting, no matter how modern instructed on as the future often for now an the immediate future what students need is in past history and older technology. Years ago like 1987 I set up a
jig table for doing
clout nail soft flats, was a fascinating project as opposed to just doing them on the cement floor or with drywall screws or the pneumatics available for the day. Lost art that
clout nail concept but one that even for educational purposes should survive even if it takes more time than glueing and pneumatic stapling. Clout nails do come loose after a long history of abuse long after the glue fails dependant on the glue, but once driven you cannot get them out and you can pound them home again later. Glue of course the
binder of wood no matter what the method and it in quality needs instruction also. (Used to work for the scene shop for the Mayor's Office of Special Events in Chicago and achieved
Master Carpenter status with it until they did away with such a thing. None the less, by way of reading the back of a glue
bottle at some
point I noted a possible reason for why we were constantly fixing outdoor scenery in our first years = gee we are usign white glue on stuff that's getting wet much less full of grease from cooking booths. Once the glue fails by way of moving about or install, its just the glue of a pneumatic staple that is holding say fencing together thus the volume of say fencing between booths that we constantly have to repair before the next event. Switched to wood glue and that amount of fixes about dropped in half at least even given for out door events wood glue while more economical was not a best option but at the time the best we had.) Once the gule fails or if it fails in no amont of added stapeles or screws will hold the scenery togher in a lasting way, that is only a bandade to the situation the fastener type or that of it driven further home. It's not the faster it's the glue and in some way joint. 150 year old tongue and
groove joints without fasteners and glue still hold, few hundred year old dove tail joints hold, less a question of what lumber to lumber joints hold than how out of expediadiance we glue and supplement with fasteners than make a swiss cheese out of that joint later that is in question of it easier to make say a
butt joint, how we can get the swiss cheese and stress away from that joint.
On a
platform, grew up with 12d and 16d nails for platforms and them constantly coming loose and needing work for the next show in being pulled out of the
platform room. Drywall screws for the most part revolutionized the industry but they still didn't really hold as perminant what the glue failed on and what was repaired the glue had already failed on. Pneumatic nails with hot melt glue coating to them could solve many problems in
nail getting that every square inch of it slivers of wood bent so as to retain the
nail plus the glue to it holding that
nail in, but as with the glue added to the joints at times it cannot at some
point overcome the stresses to the
platform or its
butt joints especially if lots of holes put into that specific area in weaking it. Past scenic company I worked from was into 5/4 x 6 lumber and aluminum reinforced corner bracing also designed to accept a 2x4
leg by way of
double headed nail holding on the
leg. This if not in other places a
leg that had sway bracing pre-attached to the
leg where you not just nailed or screwed the 2x4
leg but also plywood corner brace for the
leg to the
platform so as to distribute the surface area of the stress on that corner by way of screws in different locations mostly than what screws were in use to hold that
butt joint together.
Overall concept on a
leg is 18" of unsupported distance (and as a given a
platform is in good condition when the
leg is attached to a possibly bad corner or such nails for the
leg are driven into the same area the fasteners holding the corner of the
platform together a
leg needs to attach to - small bullet big sky in weakening the
platform fasteners.)
Anyway, no matter what the type of
platform manufacture, once you attach a few dozen legs to it over a lifetime of the
platform you tend to make what lumber the corners of it is fastened to much like swiss cheese - especially if it's legging gets stuck and yanked off. Problem than is legging in the same area one is fastening that
platform together from. And the stresses of the legs in that same localized area.
Either need a
leg mechanism out of steel or aluminum that both supports that joint and the plywood in the corner than the legs for holding it up removes the swiss cheese from the corner while supporting the legs, or say less swiss cheese in the corners of the
platform by way of driving that
leg into the direct area where the
platform is held together in the least extent possible and further supports the
leg in the field of the
platform by way of screwing
thru the sway brace. This means legs that have plywood sway brace corner blocks of at least half inch already glued and attached to them where by you can instead of screwing that 2x4 into the corner of the
platform, instead say do one or two screws into the 2x4 to keep it honest, but mostly screw your shorter and easier to drive screws into the plywood corner bracing which goes into the field of the
platform in not making swiss cheese of that corner. A few screws across say a 12 to 18" corner brace well away from the corner as opposed to right at the corner will both ensure your
platform stays togeter better and lasts longer - this no matter the fastener type. This plus once the sway bracing is pre-attached and glued to the
leg, you now have a quicker install and one you won't need to further intall sway bracing to. One step under or parallel to
truss style platforming where the platforms more sit on a pre-legged trussed section where the support is already installed and you more fasten the
platform into its support structure.
Different concepts both the aluminum or steel frame about the corner that will accept a
leg or that of a
leg that distributes the attachment about the
platform as opposed to its direct corner. As with the
platform truss in better ways to do a
platform legging. Amazing how beneficial it is once one is using a
platform for a
platform an it's legging is not directly in the location of the
leg for it how much better a
plat will survive.