cap your damn rebar (burning man note)

[rwx]

make people's lives easier, cap your damn rebar.

actually more of a general suggestion, but comes up more there.

Comments

[onesandzeros.livejournal.com]

Oh hell yeah. I second that. I'm not much for bloody shins while camping.

For the ambitious, it'd be hella cool to get some bling tied to or wrapped around your ropes going to the rebar. Indigo nearly ate it this weekend on some invisible FISHING LINE holding an art piece between two trees.

[marc17.livejournal.com]

candycaning means it can be pounded flush with the ground and easier to remove.

[rwx.livejournal.com]

yeah

Or, an alternative -

[tanjent.livejournal.com]

Across from the bagged nails/screws/etc at Home Depot are bins of giant galvanized nails sold as "landscaping spikes".

Get some of the ones that are at least 10" long + a washer for each (in the loose bins, about 1.25" across).

Run your tent loop / guy wire / etc. under the washer and hammer them into the playa straight down until the head is completely buried and you can't hear the hammer clink.

Way easier to hammer in / pry out than rebar, they don't tear up your hands when you're carrying them, you can't trip over them or impale yourself on them, they don't rust, you don't have to cap / candycane them, and since the connection point between the guy line and the stake is underground the line can't exert as much torque on the stake - they hold at least as well as rebar for most uses (though i'd stick with rebar if you're going to be banging more than a foot of it underground).

I've been using 'em for years and never had one pull out or even wiggle a hair.

Re: Or, an alternative -

[rwx.livejournal.com]

well, the issue with that this year is that the cruft layer is about 6" deep, so you really want to get pretty far in. other than that, yeah, it's an excerpt from a longer conversation about the topic on bcwa.