Surveying in the Philippines is always a tough job given the fact that being in a third world country, Filipino surveyors do not enjoy commercial availability of good surveying consumables like the surveying nails. For this reason, we suffered and shall continue to suffer a lot of hand injuries when hammering down very poor quality made in china concrete nail breaks. I tried looking around in our local industry ChrisNik mag nails or any surveying nails of good quality. I found nothing.
Being in the US with tons of quality surveying stuff flooding the market, can you help me guys on what surveying nail to buy? I guess, I can look for it in ebay. What I really want is the type of nail that never bends or breaks to avoid injuries.
Thank you so much.
Regards.
Never breaks or bends? MAG Nails are closest to that, although for years I used PK Nails too, BUT have only been using the MAG Nails for a few years now, shipping might be a bit expensive to you since they are fairly heavy.
SHG
Amdomag
They may have really tough nails available in the US but here in the UK I haven't found a nail that can cope with all concrete. If the concrete is hard the nail's going to bend or fly off! I carry a small battery powered drill with a masonry bit to drill pilot holes for nails in old, hard concrete. If the hole is slightly smaller than the nail you get a tight 'drive fit'.
On construction sites there can be people around with big nail guns with masonry nails, those things can put a nail into anything!
The cheapest (and best) nails I've found for tarmac and 'hub and tack' are galvanised steel or stainless roofing nails, strong, coarse threaded with a big domed head and up to 8" long. You can combine them with big stainless washers for a very visible station and the domed head takes a centre punch mark.
On harbour work we used to use domed head brass screws with copper washers which could be letter and number stamped.
If MAG nail is the best choice for me then I am willing to absorb the shipment cost just to avoid injuries. Safety first.
Artie Kay
I'll be purchasing Bosch36V or Bosch24V hopefully in the second quarter of this year as suggested by the majority of American surveyors in this group. In fact, I'm excited reaching that point. However, there are site situations where hammer+nail provides more convenience than bringing along this heavy duty drill.
Thank you so much for sharing. I'll be definitely doing what you're suggesting based on your experience when my drill arrives.
Regards.
> Amdomag
>
> They may have really tough nails available in the US but here in the UK I haven't found a nail that can cope with all concrete. If the concrete is hard the nail's going to bend or fly off! I carry a small battery powered drill with a masonry bit to drill pilot holes for nails in old, hard concrete. If the hole is slightly smaller than the nail you get a tight 'drive fit'.
>
> On construction sites there can be people around with big nail guns with masonry nails, those things can put a nail into anything!
>
> The cheapest (and best) nails I've found for tarmac and 'hub and tack' are galvanised steel or stainless roofing nails, strong, coarse threaded with a big domed head and up to 8" long. You can combine them with big stainless washers for a very visible station and the domed head takes a centre punch mark.
>
> On harbour work we used to use domed head brass screws with copper washers which could be letter and number stamped.
amdo
get a hammer, a carbide tipped scriber and a star drill. star drill can be found in different sizes. mine makes about a 4mm diameter hole, most of the time. it's about the size of a pencil. on some concrete, it will break/drill a not so uniform hole.
drill the hole in the concrete, then follow it up with a scribed crosscut. when i lay the straight edge for the crosscut, i scribe at a right angle, BUT diagonal to any broom finished concrete. this makes it easier to recover the point in the future.
this should solve your consumables problem with lack of quality nails
amdo
Thank you sooo much for sharing. I'll definitely do it as proven working in your experience. :good: :good: :good:
MAG Nails by ChrisNik is the best going.
I haven't had much luck with nails here in the US. I use the drill method now like the other posters.
It helps to be a pecker. That is using the first nail much like a star drill and pecking on it to get a proper hole started, then grab a sharp, new nail and finish the job.
amdo
What's the picture, a drill-hole version of a pincushion farm? 😉
60d common at the hardware store in 100 lb boxes.
I buy the small black concrete nails for concrete, mag nails for most other applications and 60d nails for traverse stations.
> It helps to be a pecker. That is using the first nail much like a star drill and pecking on it to get a proper hole started, then grab a sharp, new nail and finish the job.
That is my typical approach and sometimes it may take 2 peckers, but do drill on occasion. Alternatively, just use a shorter nail (didn't say pecker...:-P ), or more commonly...
...just set witness corners.
tell me about it.
Try to drive a chinese made 2" finish nail into a piece of wood. It will go in about 1-3/4" then it doesn't have enough strength in the shaft to overcome the friction along the shaft so the stupid bends. Very frustrating. I need to get a nailer because the cheap nails are to hard to drive straight.
Have you gone to a building site where the construction crew is using nails to affix wood to concrete ?
This is not my favourite sport as if there is a glancing off a stone in the concrete it's dangerous !
Always wear safety glasses.
Cheers
Derek
Can you share some pictures of more details of what a black concrete nail is? I also don't have any idea on 60d nails for traverse stations.
Thank you so much. :good:
> I buy the small black concrete nails for concrete, mag nails for most other applications and 60d nails for traverse stations.
a 60 is maybe a 6" long spike.
I use a lot of 12" spikes for traverse points. They are fairly cheap, make a decent mini-monument and are more stable in forest traversing. They aren't very convenient to use in pavement though.
> Can you share some pictures of more details of what a black concrete nail is? I also don't have any idea on 60d nails for traverse stations.
