I decided that this would be the year that I build myself a bed of nails for my science classroom, and after lots of research I figured out that one nail per square inch should prevent me from needing lots of bandaids. Armed with that knowledge and being a chicken, I divided a 6 foot by 2 foot piece of 3/4″ ply into 3/4 inch squares.
I thought to myself, gosh thats alot of squares, and midway through predrilling I realized that this was a very bad idea, but I am quite stubborn, and leaked word of the project to some colleagues, so I had to finish it. For those without a handy calculator we are talking about 2304 holes.
Took me about 4 hours and two bits to drill all the holes, and then the nailing started.
I opted to use 16d coated 3.25 inch long nails from blowes, and started with 25 pounds. Turns out I am using about 10 pounds a foot, and I decided to go for a 50 pound box of 16d 3.25 inch nails, and here in lies the question.
My new nails from the 50 pound box seem slightly shorter and slightly smaller diameter, I was wondering what the allowable amount of variation is for nails of the “same size” like 16d for instance?
The good news is I love my estwing hammer, and I am becoming equally adept driving nails with either hand!
Replies
Don't have an answer, but I had noticed last year that the nails at HD are made in USA for 1 pound boxes, and made in China for 5 pound boxes, and they looked very different.
So you're going to take your 200# body and lay it on 2,000 nails ... that's about 2 ounces per nail ...
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
Makes you wonder how he's gonna climb aboard. Considerably more weight per nail trying to get on that throwback to the Spanish Inquisition.
I never met a tool I didn't like!
I have not quite figure out the get on board bit, but you can be sure that the first time I try it I will be wearing my reallly thick carhartts! I am hoping to finish it over this weekend!
I want something fun for back to school night!
So, what's the point? (Sorry, couldn't resist.)
I never met a tool I didn't like!
Yeah, I have wondered about how you get into place. Maybe a small piece of 1/4" ply for you to sit on, then slowly lay down, and have someone pull out the ply.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
heck, after all them nails, the tetnus shot will be painless..lol
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
I tried it (carefully) I lowered myself sitting onto the bed of nails, with my feet on the floor, and hanging off of a rope hooked to some of the joists in my basement ceiling, and slowly added weight onto the nails,
and I can say, I now need 750 bandaids.... and alot of iodine,
Kidding.... I think I way over estimated the amount of nails, and no punctures happened . I think it will be a very exciting back to school night this year I will try to post pictures....
sounds like a cool project...
couldn't tell you about the 'allowable' differences, but im right there with you...
i had a 1 pound box of 16's from about 2 years ago... bought another box last month, and there is considerable difference in the new box. i.e. slimmer, cheaper, etc...
its not enough for the big companies to start skimming an ounce out of the cereal box, baby food, ice cream etc... but now its carried over to nails...
good luck with the project... post some pics when your done
oak
Edited 9/18/2004 1:53 pm ET by oak
The 2x4s are getting smaller too. It's a conspiracy.
Yeah, and 1x trim stock is now quoted as 5/8 and actually measures 9/16...on a hot, humid day! In winter it's down to a half inch....
Conspiracy, hell! It's daylight robbery.
I'm gonna buy me a planer, just as soon as I've got someplace to put it....Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
>>> Yeah, and 1x trim stock is now quoted as 5/8 and actually measures 9/16...on a hot, humid day! In winter it's down to a half inch....
Conspiracy, hell! It's daylight robbery.
I'm gonna buy me a planer, just as soon as I've got someplace to put it....
I have a planer, but I have a hard time finding any lumber good enough to be worth planing to dimension. It seems that the future is indeed plastics. The lumber is so bad that I'm going to side my house with cement board, probably Hardy, but maybe Certainteed. Otherwise it would be cedar, but the cedar siding is so thin and knotty with crazy grain and wide rings I don't want to use it.
Isn't there a cabinet-maker's supply house somewhere near you? They usually have better lumber than most standard lumberyards, and frequently it costs less, too, at least for the finish-grade wood. I pay $2.00 per board foot for planed 4/4 #1&2 white pine at the yard; if I'm willing to drive to the supply house where I buy unplaned cabinetry-grade wood, it costs me $1.75 + $.10/foot for them to joint one edge and run it through their big General thickness planer.
Another option would be to find a small sawmill and have them mill it to your specs: quarter-sawn, wedged, or whatever suits your need. I'm lucky to live near the last water-powered sawmill in Québec. The old man that runs it must be in his mid 70s by now, and he took it over from his father, and he took it over from his father....
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
I can get quality wood here and there. There are a few sawmills around, but nowhere close, but there is a lumber dealer in the city. http://www.requarth.com/
The local yards are pretty much gone since Lowes and HD moved in, and their lumber is so-so at best.
This may be beside the point but, what is the purpose of you demonstration? If these are grade school or even high school kids it doesn't sound like the safest thing in the world to be teaching them.
Rander
Some of the things I do, I make them promise not to do at home... like my bowling ball pendulum, and pumpkins off the roof of the school....
The bed of nails is one of the oldest "pressure tricks" showing that if you disperse the force over a large enough area it doesnt hurt! (but an apple gets skewered if it is allowed to drop onto the nails... it is too cool!)
>>(but an apple gets skewered if it is allowed to drop onto the nails... it is too cool!)
It's not fair, let's see what happens if we drop you onto the nails. :)
One thing comes to mind, how do you make sure the plane of the points of the nails conforms to the contour of your body? Otherwise you don't get even distribution of pressure to each point.
I assume you are going to lie on the bed face up?
before i even got thru the thread i remebered My college prof. doing the bowling ball pend. with a twist. He put spikes in it and swung it over our head in a stadium style lecture hall. the law of declineing energy or what ever it was wasn't the lesson I learned that day. It was that Physics never fails and the laws that apply to it are absolutes, guess that is why I have a self-leveling laser. LOL good luck with the bed of nails . I hope it gets the point across to your students. :) MIke