railroad spike – Nick Momrik

We left our foyer empty in the house design so I could build some things for it.

First up was a coat rack. I pulled out a piece of walnut and got the bulk of the bark off the live edge. This piece has a lot of sapwood, which should turn out sweet.

Before getting ahead of myself by sizing the board in any way, I wanted to make the hooks from railroad spikes so I could see how much space they’d need. I bought about 20 of these on Facebook Marketplace a few years ago and still have a bunch.

I don’t have much for metal working tools, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to get consistent length by cutting with an angle grinder. In order to give myself a decent chance at success, I screwed a couple pieces of plywood to my drill press vise and drew a reference line. Then I cut all nine spikes.

At the disc sander I flattened the ends. For the spikes to lay square to the sanding surface I propped them up on some wood.

I soaked the pieces in a 50/50 mix of white vinegar and water overnight.

Rinsed and wiped them off.

Marked the centers as best I could. Then I stepped through 3/32, 5/32, and 13/64 drill bits on each part. I broke one 3/32 bit and luckily it was deep enough in the hole where it wouldn’t matter.

Then came my favorite part, adding threads in the holes. I used a 1/4-20 tap.

I cleaned up the rest of the rust on a bench grinder wire wheel. Then primer and paint.

Back to the wood. After doing a rough mockup, I cut a length of the larger board and ripped it to create pieces for the shelf and main.

Then they went through the planer.

Drilled a bunch of holes, found some bolts in my collection, and did a dry fit.

I recently bought a corded 6″ random orbital sander, protection pads, and 3M Xtract Net discs, which make sanding much easier. After wiping with a tack cloth, I glued and screwed the pieces together.

I applied three coats of the All-Natural Wood Finish from Bumblechutes mixed 1:1 with Citrus Solvent. It was the first time I’d used this on a project and I’ll definitely be using it more. It went on easy with a foam brush and light sanding with 400 grit between coats. Then to finish it off, one coat of their Bee’Nooba Wax, which I’ve used before.

When bolting on the railroad spikes I applied a little thread locker. I mounted it to the wall and put up a sign my sister gave us.

Now I need to figure out what kind of bench to build.

Last month we remodeled the small bathroom on our main floor and we’ve been living without some important things in the room, toilet paper and towel holders. The roll of TP has been sitting on the floor and a towel has been draped over the edge of the sink. Time to change that.

When I remodeled the living room, I bought some railroad spikes with the plan to incorporate them in to some designs. I didn’t use one. As we talked about ideas for the bathroom we thought it might be neat to use some of the spikes. Brandi found these examples on Pinterest for inspiration.

Of course I would make my own versions, especially since these cost $98 and $104 respectively! When I milled up the black walnut for the ladder, I did a second board to make these holders. To see the grain I had rubbed some water on the pieces.

The big challenge was attaching the spikes to the wood. Since I like to learn new skills I wanted to see if I could bolt them together. I cut the spikes to length and sanded the ends square-ish. Then it was over to the drill press to put a 13/64 hole in each end. Things weren’t perfectly straight, but the spikes are far from straight anyway, so it was fine. I finally got to use the tap wrench I received for Christmas a few years ago, which was just big enough to fit a 1/4-20 tap. It worked and I was so excited!

I used different bolts with washers in the final assembly but didn’t get a picture. After cleaning them up the spikes with a wire wheel on a bench grinder, I drilled some holes in a scrap piece of wood, mounted them, and spray painted them black.

I drilled a hole near the heads where I used epoxy to put in a pin which would keep the rail in place. I didn’t get a picture of this, but I do have one at the end of the post to show how the TP holder works. Meanwhile, I had cut all of my pieces of walnut, drilled holes for mounting and assembly, rounded the edges on my router table, and sanded through the grits.