What happened to the Survey Tacks?

We use hundreds of tack's bought locally from a survey supply company in Orlando and have never experienced any problems. You sure it's tack and not the hub? 😎

It may be just this one box of tacks. When I fill my tack ball, I end up culling about half of them because the divot does not line up with the shank. I ordered a box this morning. I'll see if they are any better. If nobody else has noticed it, then it may be just this one box. It is a couple of years old.

James

A few years back I wound up with a box of tacks where a large percentage of the heads/divots were offset like the head of a golf club.

SellmanA, post: 446931, member: 8564 wrote: A few years back I wound up with a box of tacks where a large percentage of the heads/divots were offset like the head of a golf club.

Mine have this problem as well. Offset between the dimple and the shank.

Switched over to small mag nails in hubs years ago. They "sing" a lot better for the schonstedt, than cup tacks do, when trying to recover points.

I don't know where I got them, but the last box I bought had the "offset" on several of them.

Funny "tack" story:

Back in the day I was on a highway widening job. There were still two lanes open (one each direction) with a drop off to subgrade adjacent to the lanes. With barrels there was precious little room to drive, let alone park a survey vehicle.

We had set offset hubs for final grading and were in the process of running levels through them. The only way to move the instrument man ahead was to get in traffic, stop just quick enough for him to hop in, and take off to drop him off at the next setup. During one of the "hop-ins" a box of tacks that was on the floorboard spilled out onto the pavement. I kicked as many as I could off into the subgrade and then hopped back in quickly.

That afternoon we were a half mile down the road at a gas station standing around the pop machine and taking a break. The pop machine was right outside the bay door to the garage and there was a guy getting a flat fixed. We could overhear the tire owner's conversation with the attendant that was fixing the flat...

"I dunno"....."looks like some sort of upholstery tack"...."there must be thirty of them in here!"

A few of us just glanced at each other and kept quiet while we polished off our sodas....;)

The first surveyor I worked for used ash hubs with a tack on some jobs and 60d nails on others.
We would carry tacks in a "Sucrets Lozenge tin" because a tack ball on a chord would get all tied up in vines and such.
He did soak all his ash hubs, stakes and lath in some form of penta wood treatment and they did last many years beyond normal expectation.
The transfer to your skin out in the summer sun would simply burn your skin off.
I can not recall the many times of bleeding fingers and fruitless efforts spent looking for a 15yr old ash hub and tack in the middle of nowhere.
Being in the land of pine knots, I never could reason with him the superior quality of a pine knot over an ash hub.
From that experience, I'll never use hub and tack unless it is a part of some contract or during a construction project.

paden cash, post: 446940, member: 20 wrote: I don't know where I got them, but the last box I bought had the "offset" on several of them.

Funny "tack" story:

Back in the day I was on a highway widening job. There were still two lanes open (one each direction) with a drop off to subgrade adjacent to the lanes. With barrels there was precious little room to drive, let alone park a survey vehicle.

We had set offset hubs for final grading and were in the process of running levels through them. The only way to move the instrument man ahead was to get in traffic, stop just quick enough for him to hop in, and take off to drop him off at the next setup. During one of the "hop-ins" a box of tacks that was on the floorboard spilled out onto the pavement. I kicked as many as I could off into the subgrade and then hopped back in quickly.

That afternoon we were a half mile down the road at a gas station standing around the pop machine and taking a break. The pop machine was right outside the bay door to the garage and there was a guy getting a flat fixed. We could overhear the tire owner's conversation with the attendant that was fixing the flat...

"I dunno"....."looks like some sort of upholstery tack"...."there must be thirty of them in here!"

A few of us just glanced at each other and kept quiet while we polished off our sodas....;)

Back in the mid-90's I had helped my aunt & uncle haul some dirt up to their cabin about 60 miles from home. I was heading down the on-ramp to I-90 westbound returning home when BAM!!! S-S-S-S-S-S went one of the tires. My tire was the recipient of a 3/8" fine-thread bolt...

Not long afterwards I was telling my brother about it... well... about three weeks prior to my incident, he had got on that SAME on-ramp when the door to his truck flew open and guess what spilled out? A small can full of 3/8" fine-threaded bolts!!!

The irony...

A Harris, post: 446946, member: 81 wrote: [SNIP]

He did soak all his ash hubs, stakes and lath in some form of penta wood treatment and they did last many years beyond normal expectation.
The transfer to your skin out in the summer sun would simply burn your skin off.

[/SNIP]

Pentachlorophenol was the stuff- highly toxic but it really was an excellent wood preservative. Not sure if commercial outfits still use it-

It was marketed as "pentatreat" (by memory).
N

Hey FredH, do you have any issues with splitting hubs? I like your idea, and wondering what size hubs and nails.

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Fredh, post: 446939, member: 12570 wrote: Switched over to small mag nails in hubs years ago. They "sing" a lot better for the schonstedt, than cup tacks do, when trying to recover points.

Hey FredH, do you have any issues with splitting hubs? I like your idea, and wondering what size hubs and nails.

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jalbrz, post: 446990, member: 11371 wrote: Hey FredH, do you have any issues with splitting hubs? I like your idea, and wondering what size hubs and nails.

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I use the one inch mag nails in 2 x 2 Oak hubs & once in a blue moon I'll get a split

What's it matter......the head of a tack is what you set up on not the shank.

Just A. Surveyor, post: 447076, member: 12855 wrote: What's it matter......the head of a tack is what you set up on not the shank.

I was wondering, similarly.

Which came first, the tack or the shot? My Aunt Alma maid her tack set firm and then got the shot. Only at that point did she call you, cornhead

I just buy them at the hardware store, they work better anyway.

Just A. Surveyor, post: 447076, member: 12855 wrote: What's it matter......the head of a tack is what you set up on not the shank.

When staking out you find the point on the head of the hub, then you put the tack on that spot. So having an offset tack head is a problem. I don't use hub/tack for control points except for single use situations.

Hopefully you are checking it after you set it.
One of my pet peeves is a crew setting a point and not turning off of it before the check shot.
I know where its was supposed to be show me where you set it

[USER=3629]@Mike Gallick[/USER]

That is and item on the "must do list" for field work.
Trust is one thing to have that your helper can measure the distance to go or come.
Believe it, there is a reason for the quote "your other left".
Zeroup and sideshot to every set monument and set reference marks and set accessories.
Without the information being in the raw data, there is no proof of the monument being set and/or being set correctly.
Then take a series of pictures with the GPS camera or Compass app on phone.