Washers or "Flashers" for Mag Nails (for control)

I have used Surv Kap products for decades, good prices, excellent products, fantastic service.

https://www.surv-kap.com/Nails-Survey-Washers

I've been using Bathey.

However if you're just referring to flat washers of soft metal why couldn't you go the hardware store and buy you some washers and stamp your own?

I've been getting washers from Home Depot or Lowes and stamping them myself.

I have been using these from Stakemill for monuments ties and control - I save the good ones for boundary

A little thinner but sound when I set them in the top of curb

1.25" Stainless Steel Washer Survey Marker Tags (500 pcs)

1.25-Survey-Marker-Stainless$199.00 ( $0.40 each)

they have some in alum for 149, but I like the steel ones

Ross Kinnie PLS

I'm not a big fan of mag nails for control points. When I set control for a project I want it to remain in place until long after I'm dead. That's a piece of work I see no point in doing twice. MNs are fine in the short term, as for staking, but not so much in the long.

If you are going to use MNs, and cost is an issue for you, why bother putting a washer on it at all??ÿ ?ÿ?ÿ

Steel washers are probably kept nice and shiny by the blowing abrasive dust in Texas, but in Washington state they rust mighty quick 

Take your pick, washers come in aluminum, brass, stainless steel and galvanized.

I use more bottle caps on hubs than anything. That rust buildup left behind anchors a 60d nail in place for many years and keeps that flagging knot out of the sun for future ID.

If you really want to go cheap, realize they probably don't have to be round.?ÿ Get a strip of aluminum, cut squares or rectangles, and stamp them yourself.?ÿ Very minimal cost, but does take time.

https://www.baselineequipment.com/sokkia-nail-markers

These are what we use, they are anonymous and occasionally fall off but they are so rarely used that you know it is your point when you find it, and the marker itself poses no threat to the long term stability of the point.

I wish they made other colors though.

I use the same or similar product from Hayes Survey Equipment that is thick reinforced flagging and put it between the head of the 60d nail and bottlecap or washer.

Drilling holes in quarters would make a very distinctive washer and save you about $1 per. Back when pennies where copper we would just drive concrete nails through them.?ÿ

Use flagging. Generously. Bury it 2" deep. Place pebbles over it. A flat stone over all. It's the hillbilly way...

are you just punching individual letters or have had some sort of stamp made up for the whole word to have time?

I sit by an anvil and individual stamp my 4 numbered license number on the washer and in the metes and bounds say " set 60d nail with galvanized washer marked 4628"

I put my last name on about two dozen and may do the rest

Once the first dozen are made the rest of the box full go rather quickly.

I don't set that many points in asphalt or other places that often and 90% or more of my points are 1/2in rebar with a manufactured cap.

I have been using http://www.survey-marker.com/ for supplies for years. I have set a lot of MN with a 2" aluminium washer, they do tend to get plowed out by snow plows, so more recently have either just set a plain MN (last longer) or if I need something a little better I use these now: https://www.berntsen.com/Surveying/Concrete-Survey-Markers/BP-Series-Markers-for-Concrete

It appears the first supplier I referenced no longer sells them, but the Berntsen ones are the same.

SHG

Ditto on the Berntsen plugs. They are what I use. You have to drill out for them, preferably with the special countersinking drill bit. But they really last.  Like I said before I'm not a big fan of MNs anyway and now that I see what people are paying for washers - to say nothing of the MNs themselves - I'm re-confirmed on that. 

If you drill out a 1/4" hole in asphalt - presuming that it has any kind of flexibility left in it - you can drive them into that really snug. 

You can epoxy them into a 3/8" hole drilled in concrete. That will leave the "cap" proud of the surface slightly. If you drill a 1/2" hole the plastic insert will keep the plug in place, although I always add a little epoxy putty.

I drill a 1/4" hole first, then ream that out to 3/8", then 1/2", then the counter sink bit. I go through 1/4" bits some, but the larger sizes last quite a while. And I have yet to wear out a countersink bit in 3 years.  

I like that...I could be in charge of producing bottle caps.

I like MNs, but I like the large ones with no washer (they last pretty much forever). 

Not everyone in my office agrees. So, I want cheap ones.

no, not that cheap, I am not doing it myself...just wondering what people use