Introduction: The Last Spike

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One of my favorite place to go in canada is the last spike attraction but what i dont like are over priced and crappy souvenirs from the gift shop, so i decided to make my own by getting a railroad spike and painting it gold. This looks great and is very cost effictive.

Step 1: Materials

You will need the following:

  1. Railroad spike
  2. Gold spraypaint
  3. Clear coat spraypaint
  4. Bench grinder (optional but highley recomended)
  5. Circular file
  6. Flat file
  7. A scotch brite pad (or any scrubbing sponge)
  8. Table vice
  9.  Sand paper

Step 2: Getting a Spike

This is easer than it may seem i went down to a park where i live that has railways going through it i walked on the tracks (i know sounds stupid but its all in the name of D.I.Y but please do not do this without adult super vision if you are young and also i take no responsiblity for any injury that may come to you this is just a guide) so anyways i walked on the tracks for less than a minute and found more than twenty to choose from.

Step 3: Grinding

This is the not so hard but the uphill struggle part you need to grind off all of the rust and or paint that is on it, this is where the bench grinder and hand files come in it took me about an hour of grinding to get it all off but this is very necassary.

Step 4: Roughing

This is very easy but almost painfull in the sense that you took hours grinding the spike smooth and shiny and now you have to go over it with sand paper and rough it it for the paint to stick.

Step 5: Painting

This will take a lot of time if you want it to look nice firstly wash and dry the spike then apply a thin coat of gold spray paint then wait 24 hours (i said it would take a long time ) then get a scotch brite pad (or any scrubbing sponge) and sand the paint job very lightly now apply another coat of spray paint and wait another 24 hours and sand again repeat untill you get the desired finish (but do not sand your last coat very important) then get some clear spraypaint and add a protective clear coat to the whole spike.

Step 6: Done

congrats you have just finished your very own last spike and it is way cheaper than at the gift shop and much better as well as getting that good feeling you only get from completeing a D.I.Y project and you get a nice golden spike to show off.