Introduction: Nail in Wood

About: I am an 21 years old mechatronics and I’m living in the north of Italy. My interests are working on electronics, playing computer and making instructables for you.

Today i'm going to show you how to put a nail into a piece of wood. Easy isn't it?

Materials:

A Nail

A piece of Wood, about 30mm x 60mm x 100mm (Nail lenth+40mm)


Tools:

a Saw /Milling Mashine

a File/Sanding Paper

a drill

a hammer

a pot with some water

Step 1: Layout the Cut

First step is to layout the cuts. You need to cut a capital E into the Wood. Best way to do it is to devide the total lenth into 5 pieces, and increase the size the two inner parts untill it the nail fits nicely between the two parts. Don't make the two outher parts to small, otherwise they may breake when people try to bend them. Transfer the markings to the second site and procede to the next step.

Step 2: Cut the Wood

Continue by cutting down the two outer lines and take out the midle part. The easyest way is to put the wood into a vice and simply break the two parts out using a pipe wrench. Clean down the edges using a file and some sandpape and proceed to the next step. If you own a milling machine (as i actually do) you can use that for this step.

Step 3: Let the Magic Begin

Now comes the refined part. Put the Wood into a pot with some water, put on a weight and heat up the water. Leave the water boiling for about 30-45 minutes (depends on type of wood). Take the wood out, put one side of the E into the Vice and compress it untill it starts to wrinkle. Leave it drying over night in this position.

Step 4: The Nail

After the wood is dry, it is time to take care of the nail. To avoid the wood from cracking, it is recommended to predrill a hole a bit smaller than the nail and hammer it through. Nearly finished.

Step 5: Finish the Workpiece

Put the wood back into the bowl of water and cook it again. The wood shoud start to bend back. Take the it out, and put it back into the vice to align the sides. After letting it dry for some more hours you can put it out and oil it. Last step:

Have some fun leting other people figure out how the nail got in!

If i would remake mine, i would cut an aditional slot into the midle bar and put an old key or a ring trought to make it even more confusing.

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