"Substitute" PK Nails

I'm a big fan of Ramset nail+washer combos, but I don't know if that's something that you'd want to use for monumentation- it certainly wouldn't fly in the county of Los Angeles.

They make great control points though, or if you need to set a lot of nails in pavement quickly.

3" long concrete nails.

They are fluted. They give off a good magnetic signature. They are handy.

Thank you,

Nate

I would never use something like that?ÿ as a monument, but I have often used hardware store spikes as traverse/control points.?ÿ

For clarification.?ÿ I'm subdividing a 5 acre tract.?ÿ In this particular county the property runs to the centerline of a paved state road.?ÿ I plan to set nails in the road centerline and then (along the property line) set a iron stake where the property intersects with the ROW.?ÿ I'm out of PK nails and I'm leaving at zero-dark-thirty on a 3 hour journey to complete this survey.?ÿ This is a very rural location and the nearest Lowes is an hour (round trip) from the project site.?ÿ

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I Like Nate The Surveyor's suggestion.

I use some 80d galvanized ring-shank spikes that I pick up at Lowes.?ÿ But I have to use a hammer drill to get a pilot hole started.?ÿ I use them because they've got a fantastic magnetic signature that will leave no doubt you've found a monument and not a bottle cap.?ÿ Can't get them in concrete, only hard pan or asphalt.?ÿ I have gotten them set in a compacted gravel base, but it's a chore.

Can think of a section corner in a gravel county road that has been marked with a PK nail since some time in the 1980's.?ÿ I have used it on more than one occasion myself, but I did not put it there.

I did set a mag nail earlier this year in a drilled hole in bedrock at a cut in a hill on a gravel county road.?ÿ Took some serious work to get that little hole drilled.?ÿ That nail will be there for a long time.

At one of my first survey jobs ordinary concrete nails were used. These were hardened steel nails, fluted, black in color, with a smallish and flat head.?ÿ I wrote a couple weeks ago how I took to pounding them through a penny to give them a little visibility.

Today 60d (6") spikes are routinely used. Lots of guys use them for traverse points, although I think of them as not substantial enough for permanent monuments. I use them for construction staking in ground that is too hard for wood hubs.?ÿ ?ÿ

In asphalt we use two foot sticks of number 5 rebar. For concrete it's a countersunk berntsen cap or mag and washer...

@thebionicman

Same here, although I find #4 much easier to pick up as scrap and less likely to be confused with the statutorily required #5's for boundary monuments.?ÿ

@mark-mayer

Mutilating money is a crime according to Title 18 Chapter 17 of the U.S. Code.?ÿ

I would never buy anything from Home Dep... or Low..., nor can I understand why they get so many free shameless advertisements.

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This is a popular myth.?ÿ The code reads

Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates...any of the coins coined at the mints of the United States...hall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.