{Train Bedroom~~Rail Road Spikes}

While scouring the internet for rail road related ideas I came across a coat rack make from rail road spikes.  While the price was reasonable, the shipping was not.  Rail road spikes and the wood to hold them are heavy and expensive to ship.  I figured I could make a coat/hat/backpack rack without too much trouble.  I found an abundance of rail road spikes on ebay.  I purchased a set of 8 from a little boy who collected them from along rail road track and was selling them to finance his need for more legos.  They fit in a small priority box so shipping was reasonable.

Step 1:  I purchased a 2x6 at my local hardware store and had them cut it into 18 inch lengths.  I decided to use 4 rail road ties per board and marked the positions.  I used a 11/16 inch spade bit to drill the holes for the first board but found out that 3/4 inch spade bit works better on the second board.  I aslo drilled two 1/4 inch holes for hanging purposes.

 

Step 2: Sand the board to remove pencil marks and smooth the rough spots.  I used a medium grit sanding block then a quick pass with a fine grit block. 

Step 3:  Stain the board.  I used Minwax Stain in the gunstock tint that I already had on hand from another project.

Step 4:  Pound in the rail road spikes.  This took quite a bit of effort to get them nice and tight.  On my second coat rack, I learned that the holes were a bit small and my board split when I pounded the last rail road spike in.  I started over and only used 3 rail road spikes spaced further apart and drilled the holes larger (3/4 inch) to avoid splitting the board.

Step 5:  Polyurethane.  I coated the board once, sanded and coated it again.  I also covered the rail road spikes with polyurethane to make sure the rust wouldn't rub off on anything.




Here they are hanging in my son's room!