The Finished Product
Using the special wing-tipped screws Merbau slatting was used as cladding over a metal framed gate. The gate frame was made from 30mm RHS steel tube with a 2mm wall thickness. The gate post is a 50mm RHS steel tube with a 4mm wall thickness. This shows how robust the drilling tip on the screws is as the gate post and mid post, another steel post, were no problem for driving these screws into.
Take a look for yourself and as always you are welcome to leave feedback or feel free to ask a question.
The blank canvas
The starting point for this garden gate makeover. The customer requirement was to fence this area off to keep a dog in. As an added bonus it would be good to keep the kids safe behind the gate because those stairs lead up to the road.
The finished gate and fence
The transformed walkway. If the gate seems narrow it is. This was a custom designed arrangement and the gate frame itself is a whisker under 700mm wide.
Timber fixed with Wing Tipped
Self Drilling Self Tapping Screws
The screw heads all sit slightly below flush with the timber surface. It takes a bit of practice to get it just right and a little driving each screw in, backing it out and driving it home again helps to get the right depth of countersink.
And from the back side it looks quite neat and tidy, save the haphazard wood pile.
Wing Tipped Screws. Just a small thing but they make a big difference. Oh, and this gate and fence needed about 120 of them, plus a handful of ordinary timber screws for the end post which is timber screwed to the boundary fence.
Happy days. Hope you found this article interesting.
Cheers,
Paul
The Wing Tipped Marvel
Here's a picture of the beauty. This is the tool, as it should rightly be called, that makes fixing timber to steel framing a cinch. And at around 10 cents a pop they're cheap as chips.
These screws have a drill-bit-like tip that cuts easily through timber closely followed by a pair of metal wings. The metal wings make the pilot hole bigger and provide relief so that when the screw is driven home the timber will not split.
When the screw tip drills through the mild steel frame, which they do remarkably easily, the wings shear off. The countersunk head is also fitted with a cutting face that self countersinks the head.
So, in a simple single operation the clever design of this screw drills a pilot hole, opens the pilot hole for relief, drills a pilot hole in the steel and using a self tapping thread cuts a grip into the steel and finishes it all off by countersinking it's own head!
Wonderful! It may seem obvious to some but to achieve the same result using a standard countersunk self tapping screw requires the following:
1. Predrill hole through timber and metal to the correct size for the self tapping screw.
2. Oversize the hole through the timber to stop the screw thread pulling directly on the timber.
3. Countersink the timber piece.
4. Drive the screw into position for a flush finish.
This operation requires about four times as much time as using the special wing tipped screws. One word of caution though.. remember the wings shear off once the screw drives through metal. As such, a screw cannot be re-used to make a complete new hole. The cutting heads on these screws will generally make several holes and in a pinch can be used in lieu of a drill bit, for example, to drill rivet holes!
In the last article of this series we take a quick peek at the finished result.
p.s. Working in Brissy? You can buy your screws from Russ-All Industrial.. the local bolt bloke on Pickering Street, Enoggera. No, sorry guys, Bunnings don't stock these pearlers!
In the first article we looked at some basics of screw technology. Next up we need some equipment to put them in. The trusty handpowered screwdriver just will not do with our high-tech screws.
Drills
Self drilling screws are designed to be driven at about 1000 revs per minute (rpm).
Most electric drills range between 1500 and 3000 rpm. An electric drill with a variable speed trigger can work, HOWEVER, be warned! An electric drill will not stop turning when you release the trigger like a cordless drill. This can make the job of driving screws quite dangerous. You've been warned. Please be careful.
Cordless drills are usually the best device to drive screws; they run at the right speed and have adjustable torque settings. However, drilling through wood, into metal and countersinking the screw head is tough even for the toughest cordless drills.
The absolute best idea is to hire a Tec-Gun. A Tec-Gun is an electric drill that only takes screwdriver bits (i.e. no drilling) runs at a close to optimum drive speed around 1200 rpm and has an electric brake. That means when you let the trigger go the spindle stops turning.
Driver Bits
Just about anyone can and has used a cordless drill.
The bits we're talking about (so you can ask for them at the hardware) are 6mm hexagonal driver bits. These bits interchange easily with various heads, to suit various screw heads. You may be familiar with the Flat Head bit for a slotted head, a Phillips Head bit, sometimes called a cross point as well as some of the newer styles such as Torx and Pozi-Drive bits.
For the special wing-tipped self-drilling self-tapping screws we will be using we need a phillips head No.2 driver bit. This is the most common size of phillips head bit in use today.
The reason for the different driver bits is that they are used for different purposes and generally the more complex patterns provide a more positive driving experience. This means the bit is less likely to slip and damage the head. It also makes their manufacture more expensive.
As an interesting aside, I recently bought a pack of outdoor timber screws made by Buildex that included a square driver bit! It seems ironic to me that we went from flat to cross to several variations of hexagonal design before coming back to a simple square. And it actually drives long screws into hard wood exceptionally well.
Buying the right driver bits involves a little understanding. In the next article we are going to see just how easy it is to put some of this screw technology to good use. For now we need to make sure we have the right tools.
Cheap bits are a waste of time and money, even though they look the same as expensive bits. Fancy coatings do help but in general good quality bits will advertise quality forging with an added bonus of a special shiny coating. For driving self-drilling, self-tapping screws into metal, buy the best driver bit you can get.
As a rule, spend about five dollars per bit (c2011). A five dollar bit will outlast at least five one dollar bits. Then again, the odds are good you will break one or two so I'd suggest buying at least two good quality bits for the job you're about to undertake.
For a good education, buy a cheap bit while you're there, no, get two! When you see in practice how long the cheap bits stand up to real work you will never waste your money again.
In Europe bits are graded according to quality. Five star bits are the right temper with a high quality coating. Here in Australia we currently do not have such a grading system. The best idea is to try one or two bits from Bunnings (mid-range quality bits) and then track down your local tool stockist. They can usually point you towards the quality you need for frustration free work.
Remember that the harder a metal is the more brittle it becomes. Drilling into steel tube, through hard timbers like Merbau is a shocking series of stop/start drill work and your drill bit needs a bit of flexibility. Inevitably though, even your best bits will succumb to breakage after a while.
Right!
Now we're armed with the right driver bit in our tec-gun we're ready to take a look at this modern wing-tipped marvel.
Building a gate or adding an attractive screen to your carport? Slatted timber finishes look great and with the right choice of screw can be assembled in no time.
In this four part article we are going to look at a modern marvel of screw technology that takes the hard work out of getting an accurate finish, fast. First up, though, let's take a quick look at all things screwy!!
Screw That!
Screw technology has come along way from the earliest modern brass screws with a slotted head designed for wood.
When we started working with metal, it quickly became apparent bolts and welding were both a cumbersome option for many applications. Thus the self-tapping screw was developed. This screw has a thread that points (narrows) toward the tip. After drilling a pilot hole a self tapper will screw into metal.
However, as anyone who has used self tappers more than once, they don't always behave! If the metal you are screwing into is too thick the thread on the screw will often strip. Also, if the pilot hole is not big enough the screw just cannot get a grip. When the thread starts to bite the next challenge is to keep the head of the screw intact; damaging the head makes it virtually impossible to install properly and if it does go in can be a nightmare to remove, especially years later.
Moving right along the materials science boys came up with a screw hard enough to hold a point sharpened like a drill bit. These screws will happily drill their own pilot hole, exactly the right size, and follow it in with a self-tapping thread to hold tight.
Now, the only practical method of using these self-drilling, self-tapping screws is with power. A cordless drill or a driver bit in a power-drill is just the ticket to successful installation of these screws.
A practical worktool embodied in a beautiful creation. From the outset the leatherbound journal inspires quality craftsmanship designed for years of active use and an attractive keepsake.
Looking for direction?
Discover your answers within yourself.
The guided discovery workshop comprehensively covers the key areas you need to address for a life of fulfillment.
From the weekly worker to the ambitious entrepreneur the work journal provides a minimalist format for maximal flexibility.
The companion guide details a step-by-step process that leads towards a set of clear, time-specific goals.
Advanced techniques in layout and presentation make it effortless to remember and schedule periodic review. The Aspiring Ambitious and Newbies alike will delight in these features as it blasts through procrastination making the task fun and entertaining.
Weekly goal cards are designed to be placed in a prominent position that cause you to daily focus on your current targets. The inclusion of recent achievements helps to positively frame your objectives with a can-do attitude.
Built into the very fabric of this gift-set planner is the psychology of the best sales persuasion strategies to actively sell YOU on YOUR goals. It makes an ideal gift for a loved one, family member or perhaps encourage a up-and-coming member of your organisation. Heaven forbid limitations: you can feel certain this would also make a great gift for your boss!
A refreshingly practical approach to setting goals and targets to aspire to the often lofty and elusive ideal of fulfillment.
The Goal Miner itself inspired by some of the most compelling and contemporary proponents from the fields of peak performance, motivational speakers, philosophers and life coaches, includes cutting edge technologies that literally compel you towards the desirable outcomes you set for yourself.
Show Me Your Goals
If you can't call to hand this very moment your list of priortised, time-sensitive goals there are two obstacles standing in your path. The first is an attitude of ambivalence towards setting goals and the second is a successful strategy to make the process easy and straightforward.
The Goal Miner obliterates these two hurdles, pulling you out of apathy setting you on the path of success, your way!
By providing background information and a healthy dose of motivational phrases you have everything at your fingertips to make a set of empowering distinctions for your future. An easy to follow layout provides a stable reference point from which to begin.
Like learning any new skill the early stages are maked by intensive coaching. As you become more proficient the format makes room for a greater degree of freedom and self expression.
The result is a set of clear, timely goals and targets backed by a compelling list of yourwhy's.
Even completion of the first task will undoubtedly have a positive impact on even the most modest and conservative forward thinker.
Setting goals can be a highly productive activity and most successful entrepreneurs actively do this.
However, Joe Average can benefit enormously simply by doing a goal setting workshop. From the nine to five worker to the philanthropic entrepreneuer completing an initial workshop to discover your goals and targets is the first step towards a greater sense of life fulfillment.
Many motivators, life coaches and other leaders of our time offer retreats, workshops and activities that centre around setting goals and attempting to motivate one to achieve.
While this works for some there are some shortcomings. The F sharp Productions Goal Miner combines the best of available technologies that deliver results that for many will simply appear to be on autopilot!
So now for the big question:
Why Set Goals?
An often quoted introduction to Goal Setting, I included it here because it serves as a fundamental motivator for anyone looking to write better targets for themselves:
In the book What they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School, Mark McCormack relays the story of a study conducted on students in the 1979 Harvard MBA program:
In that year, the students were asked, "Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?" Only three percent of the graduates had written goals and plans; 13 percent had goals, but they were not in writing; and a whopping 84 percent had no specific goals at all.
Ten years later, the members of the class were interviewed again, and the findings, while somewhat predictable, were nonetheless astonishing. The 13 percent of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all. And what about the three percent who had clear, written goals? They were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together.
It would appear that properly formulated goals are essential by any metric of success in the modern world. However, financial success is not the only factor and many people living simple lives simply do not (in fact) aspire to be millionaires.
A key distinction however is that those people who take a little time to diligently form clear targets and goals reap the biggest rewards in the material universe. Arguably, they are also those that have the clearest sense of what lies beyond the grave - at least they have made the best preparation in this lifetime for what may lie ahead!
In the next post I will outline the salesy pitch with which I plan to market the leatherbound journal for the Goal Miner and a let you take a sneak peak at the format of the accompanying guide book and audio CD.
Feel free to jump over the marketing hype to get to the good stuff although the entire process of setting goals is in reality a sales pitch to yourself.
Once you sell yourself on the idea - and it is up to you to do so - that goal setting works, is a good thing to do and for a truly fulfilling life is a must do, you may be interested to learn that the marketing of such a resourceful tool is an essential ingredient of the whole process.
To recap, if you know you need to set goals and want some clear direction that walks through the process of setting clear targets, Goal Miner is the answer. If you are mildly interested in a tool that just might make the difference then skim through the promo for a couple of clues. When you want to maximise the positive impact from the sum total of your effort towards creating the life of your dreams then read every word, follow the instructions and reap the benefits!
"They" say, the Devil is in the detail but you sometimes you gotta look a little closer to find the clues.... Happy Hunting and enjoy the process!
Click here to read the next post in the F sharp Productions Goal Miner.
Click here to read Programming the Painless Point.
Release : 2 October 2010 Field : Healthy Lifestyle Focus : Expert Advice Status : First Revision
We are supposed to drink 8 glasses of water each day, right? But most of us drink one or two glasses of tap water and the rest we supplement with tea, coffee and fruit juices. Our health is suffering and there are easy steps to beat the trend. Read on to find out more.
The Problem
If you ask a hundred people from different locations and backgrounds why they don't drink 8 glasses of water a day you will get about a hundred different reasons: "I drink 6 cups of coffee", "I prefer fruit juice", "I'd rather something with taste", etc.
The real reason is that our bodies have a negative reaction to the water we're drinking.
Tap water and most bottled water has high concentrations of dissolved solids, or salts, that react with our tastebuds and send a subtle message to our brain that we should limit the amount we consume.
Our bodies wants pure, clean water.
It may sound far fetched to some people however the chemicals and other things in town water are the underlying reason we don't drink much of it.
The Solution
The short answer is drink pure water!
That isn't as helpful or as simple as it sounds because you can't tell by looking at a glass of water if it's pure or not.
Firstly, without proper filtration, town or city water contains salts, chemicals like chlorine and potentially other harmful substances. Second, bottled water comes in as many different varieties and not all are particularly good for you or the environment.
Like any fad diet, many people latch on to brand of bottled water because:
it's fashionable
celebrities are drinking it
it has a cool tv commercial
an authority figure recommended it
it is reputed to have healing powers
Before you decide the answer is bottled water you may like to watch the following video.
While I agree there's a huge problem with the bottled water process and the video conveniently overlooks a number of problems with tap water, rather than hit you upside the head with a barrage of sales speak here's a good place to start by increasing your consumer awareness.
So at least for the long term bottled water is not the answer.
Another interesting point raised in the video is that both Pepsi and Coke bottle filtered tap water. The fact is that tap water is basicallygood, certainly in most first world countries.
Rather than glamorise a particular mineral water spring, the best water for your body is pure water. The best way to get pure water in the city is in the short term purchase ultra filtered water or buy a decent water filter.
Bottled Water
Selecting the right bottled water can be a challenge but here's a couple of simple guidelines:
Firstly, the less stuff in water the better it is for you. Most water bottles have a label showing a typical analysis of the water.
Here's a completely useless water bottle label:
If you find a bottle with this label, don't buy it on principle that they are attempting to completely deceive you, the consumer.
It provides no useful information and is simply a statement that water contains no fat, calories, carbohydrates or protein. This is not news and is a short term marketing tactic that has attracted the attention of lobbyists and other activists.
We need better information. At least the following label has some information that tells us something useful:
The numbers in the label on the left represent mg/L or parts per million. This is a label from an Evian bottle.
I personally would not buy this water because I can see it is full of minerals that my liver has to actively remove to make use of the water!
Besides that, the only advantage this water has over tap water is that is has a lower level of Chlorides. Otherwise it is virtually identical to 90% of 1st world countries tap water!
To be fair, according to the Evian website:
Sodium is good for liver
Calcium strengthens bones
Magnesium is necessary for nerve system
Bicarbonates stimulate peptic
What the website fails to mention is how our bodies are supposed to get the minerals advertised as good ingredients in the water. Rather than embark on a scare campaign I would point out that in the grand scheme of things the contents of the above mentioned water - as long as they closely match the label - aren't too bad.
To clear up a few things
Sodium is salt. Plain table salt known as Sodium chloride or the chemical shorthand, NaCl. We get plenty in a typical Western diet and we don't need extra in our water. Happy to say 6.5mg/L is quite low.
Calcium is used by our bodies to make and repair bones but we need it in conjunction with Vitamin D to be able to use it. We don't need it in our water although it is relatively harmless.
Magnesium and Calcium contribute to water hardness. Less is better.
Sulfates are bad, full stop! We are carbon-oxygen machines and sulfur is poison. Low levels our bodies can tolerate like air pollution in the city.
Nitrates again are poisons. A level of 0 is beneficial to our body. While they occur in nature and we can tolerate a level of them, ideally water should have zero, zip, zilch. Water, the universal solvent, is what flushes these toxins out of our bodies. The less contaminants in the water to begin with the better the water can do its job to keep our bodies health.
Bicarbonates are used for cooking, right? A rising agent in bread and so forth? Well, this 'ingredient' in Evian's water is the result of the 15 year long journey their water takes through some French Alp underground aquifer... or something...
Not a harmful substance in itself although through years of consumption this contributes to kidney stones. It's basically dissolved limestone.
Right.
Want a good metric? If the total 'ingredients' add up to less than 100 then the water is pretty good. General tap water is typically 200 to 300 ppm, the combined level of all contaminants.
If I have to buy bottled water I go for ultra filtered water like the Coke and Pepsi brands. On the Australian market we are fortunate to be able to purchase Nobles' ultra filtered water in a cask. It's a better packaging solution and more affordable too.
Just bear in mind the marketing machine. Doesn't it strike you as odd that filtered water from Coke costs more than a bottle of coke? Their filtered water is the same they use in coke, just before they add all those special ingredients and a huge dose of sugar. So why does it cost so much? Hmm... There is a better way.
The Right Water Filter
If you want a simple answer as to what the right water filter is then buy an RO filter system. The long answer is that you should really inform yourself as to what water filtration is all about. I have prepared a series of articles to make the process easy but here is a superficial treatment of the subject:
Filter jugs normally have a carbon filter. This generally improves the taste by removing chlorine. These are only half measures towards real water filtration. They are also costly when you consider that most jug filters are ineffective after only a month of use.
Ceramic filters and fancy benchtop jug systems work more or less by removing some of the contaminants of the water. They mostly look good but do little to improve water quality.
Single and twin undersink and benchtop filters are the real entry point towards real water filtration. They use filter cartridges in a plastic housing to filter the water.
In general the first cartridge is a coarse filter designed to remove sediment and heavier particles from the water. The second filter is a carbon filter designed to remove chlorine and some other contaminants like pesticides.
Reverse osmosis, or RO, systems pre-clean the water using a series of cartridge filters like the twin undersink and then forces the water through an ultra-fine membrane, usually made from latex, that gives the finest filtration possible.
It is generally inadvisable to drink distilled water although a good distillation system can remove almost every contaminant from the water.
Water conditioners come in a range of types from ion exchange to soften the water - which is good for showering and laundry water - to magnetic or electronic ionisation devices. A water sweetener for example uses a strong magnetic field to align the precession of the water molecules passing through the filter. Arguably the water tastes sweeter however this is generally a subtle improvement.
After a month or so of drinking and cooking with reverse osmosis water - the same process Coke and Pepsi use to filter their water prior to use in their sugar drink products - your tastebuds will actually be able to tell the differences in different waters. This is also the point that an additional water condition can be added to the system for optimum performance.
I'm an advocate for RO water and I make no bones about it.
The list of advantages are long and even after wading through the plethora of sales information available the real difference to your health and vitality from making a simple lifestyle choice is huge.
As I add more articles to explore the details of water and water filtration I will update the relevant links.
To your health and longevity drink pure water. Enjoy
Before we go on though, let's have a quick look at why our water is the way it is.
