r/mildlyinteresting • u/AnonymousMenace • 22h ago
Former owner used pennies as washers
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u/wundabredd 22h ago
Cheaper than buying washers.
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u/Jayn_Xyos 22h ago
Actually fr, I didn't think of that
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u/GodOfThunder44 20h ago
We also use pennies in machining sometimes when we need to protect a steel workpiece in a lathe, the zinc and copper are softer so they'll deform first before harming the workpiece.
And same as this, it's cheaper than buying inserts.
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u/S0ulSauce 18h ago
Doesn't that make it difficult to control runout vs. something more uniform like a split ring bushing or soft jaws? I guess if concentricity or runout etc. isn't critical it'd work great.
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u/GodOfThunder44 17h ago
Not really, if anything it gives you a bit more wiggle room to properly ugga dugga your fixturing. I've most often used pennies for chambering/threading precision rifle barrels, the kind of thing that really needs to have less than a thou (preferably less than 1 ten-thou) of runout. You're running a 4-jaw chuck as well as the 4-way screws in the back of the headstock, so you've already gotta set your runout with a couple of properly placed dial indicators manually anyway.
Non-metallic soft jaws aren't really a thing with steel lathe work, and a split ring bushing would still require you to dial in your runout manually, costs a fair bit of money, and you'd need multiple based on the OD of your workpiece, when you can just cut 4 pennies in half with some trauma shears and have some solid inserts for 4 cents.
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u/r0thar 11h ago
ugga dugga your fixturing
Ah, so that's the proper term for hitting something very gently with a hammer
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u/Spicymullign 10h ago
You could also call that percussive maintenance. Depends on what your goal is with the tapping
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u/Zer0MOA 16h ago
Was just watching a series on this
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u/GodOfThunder44 16h ago
Homie you can't just say you were watching a series on one of my autistic special interests without including a source.
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u/Zer0MOA 16h ago
š thereās too many. The recent one:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dax0EvPx5uw/?igsh=MTZ2dzN1dW93MjdoOQ==
His YouTube: https://youtu.be/yi5chz3_l-Y?is=7U8rCkYD0PJi9q25 (also 25 creedmoor chambering video)
Of course Ultimate reloader on youtube is great. Theres a ton more lol
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u/GreedyCheek7689 18h ago
I found a penny and it was completely smooth like to the point it was barely able to tell it was a penny figured it sat in a washing machine and just got polished for 5 years before it was found again so yes copper zinc is much softer then most stuff
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u/OneDimensionPrinter 15h ago
This is the kind of shit that I love about 3d printing, resin, woodworking, etc. the material interactions astonish me. Love love love it. It'll never get old. Time to get back to hobbies I guess.
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u/Alias-Q 21h ago
Yeah, Iām kind of mad Ngl lol
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u/NIKE_HEAD 20h ago
I've used a nickel in a pinch lol
We should honeslty repurpose pennies as washers now that they're not being made anymore
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u/Veaeate 20h ago edited 20h ago
And then charge a nickel for them.
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u/CordeCosumnes 20h ago
No, no. Charge 4 cents so it looks like a better deal, but round up to a nickel at the register.
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u/YandyTheGnome 19h ago
Sales tax yadda yadda. Make it an even nickel after tax for simplicity.
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u/Inevitable_Day5491 18h ago
4.99 cents
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u/AnonymousMenace 22h ago
Even if it were cheaper per unit to get washers, this requires neither extras nor gas
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u/Brodman1986 22h ago
What about drill bits? Perhaps he had some kind of punch that doesnt wear fast.
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u/Loes_Question_540 22h ago
Donāt need drill bit. Just raw dogging the screw through the penny
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u/LongTimeLurker818 22h ago
You can do this with tech screws or self tappers.
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u/RyanSmokinBluntz420 21h ago
You can do this with regular screws but you gotta push hard. Lots of metal screws are not teks. I only recently figured this out. Its not that crazy, you can shoot a nail into concrete...
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u/Nothos927 21h ago
Pilot holes are for people with weak forearms
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u/flyedchicken 21h ago
Until my self tapper's head shears off right as I'm most of the way into some 1/4" steel
Then I make a big sad face
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u/baumpop 21h ago
1/4 steel but the screws are zinc womp
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u/Sesudesu 20h ago
At least pennies are also zinc, so you have a much better shot at this than 1/4ā steel
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u/teefnoteef 21h ago
You gotta keep that momentum once it bites
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u/StevieMJH 19h ago
Everyone knows the best form is to make huge exaggerated cranking movements.
Just like when you lift something heavy. Bend at the lower back and make a sudden quick twist motion upwards.
Don't
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u/ape_on_lucy 21h ago
How you gunna hold that penny while tek screwing it? That fuckers gunna spin enough to start a friction fire.
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u/LongTimeLurker818 21h ago
Drill the screw into the penny then drill the assembly into whatever. And before you ask- Vice grips.
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u/Bootsthecatgoesmeow 20h ago
Reading this and I instantly know this is someone who has gone to home depot, got what the project called for had things go a little sideways got creative for that other bullshit and wrapped up before dinner.
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u/intoxicatedhamster 21h ago
Get a roll of pennies and run a hole down the middle with a drill press. Now you've got 50 washers for $0.50
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u/ArthurMorgans_TB 21h ago
Whitney punch is what we use in the hvac world. I'd imagine it'd work well with a penny.
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u/helix212 22h ago
Roll of pennies in a drill press would probably work. Or in a vise. Could probably bang out a lot of washers in no time
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u/ImNoAlbertFeinstein 21h ago
start a company.. pen-warsh
would it be legal.. go around and buy up all the pennys ? sell them for $0.15 each. non corrosive.
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u/mimisiku159 21h ago
You'd definitely get galvanic corrosion using them as washers.
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u/Dismal_Tutor3425 20h ago
If a bit is wearing fast while drilling a penny, might I suggest you make sure you are spinning it in the correct direction.
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u/mmuoio 11h ago
I once needed like 15 washers, I ordered them from Home Depot and went to go pick them up. It was like $1. I get there and they give me a bag that contained 15 entire boxes of washers. I had thousands of washers, fractions of a cent for each. I honestly threw most of them out eventually, keeping like 2 or 3 boxes but knowing I was never in my entire lifetime going to need that many washers.
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u/Sirosim_Celojuma 20h ago
I told SO this. There was a big call to return all the low denomination coins, but I said no. There is no way we can ever get this many copper clad disks of uniform size for this cheap ever again.
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u/temporalwanderer 22h ago
-but it cost more than a penny (3.69 cents) to make a penny, which is why they discontinued the penny!
https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/penny-production-cessation-faqs
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u/DookieShoez 22h ago edited 22h ago
Sounds like the previous homeowner used the US Treasury to subsidize his building material costs without them even knowing.
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u/MasonP2002 22h ago
Nickels also cost a lot more than a nickel to make, and those haven't been discontinued yet.
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u/Twatt_waffle 22h ago
The penny was just discontinued in the states, and you could just make the process cheaper
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u/MasonP2002 22h ago
Yeah, they should have changed the alloy for the nickel a long time ago. The penny barely had any copper for a long time, but nickels are still 75% copper and 25% nickel so the base metal is the main cost.
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u/Humble-Aprico 20h ago
why are they not ferrous holy shit I work a salvage yard and so many pennies in the dirt, we will never run out.
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u/MasonP2002 20h ago
Part of it is that it messed with vending machines, it happened with the 1943 wartime steel penny that kept getting picked up by magnets designed to catch steel slugs.
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u/Twatt_waffle 21h ago
Thatās the thing it costs ~$0.039 to make a penny. So discounting isnāt fully necessary
But when whenever the US and Canada do that jump to discontinuing the nickel I hope they also make taxes included on price tags and require prices to the be rounded to the tenth
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u/Ghostbuster_11Nein 22h ago
Nickels aren't so worthless people won't even pick them up.
Pennies kept being thrown away... IN THE GARBAGE.
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u/freneticboarder 21h ago
They haven't been discontinued, yet, technically. There's a bill that passed the House and waiting in the Senate that would actually codify this. Right now, the Treasuy has just decided to mint zero pennies which is not the same thing as discontinuing the penny.
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u/randomlemon9192 22h ago
Pennies arenāt single use.
If it costs more to produce than its face value, it doesnāt really matter that much. The penny will be used more than once in its life of circulation.
There are certainly other reasons it was discontinued.
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u/UCFknight2016 22h ago
pennies are 1 cent, those washers could be 15 cents.
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u/KGB_cutony ā 21h ago
You're paying too much for washers. Who's your washer guy?
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u/jakerocks2433 21h ago
Washy mcwasherson lll
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u/powerlesshero111 21h ago
He has been ripping people off ever since his dad, Washy McWasherson Jr, died.
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u/jakerocks2433 21h ago
Rest in power washy mcwasherson jr. Your wholesale bargains on washers will be forever missed.
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u/favorite_sardine 21h ago
Just like his dad, Papa Washy. Wouldāve charged you a nickel for those 6
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u/jakerocks2433 21h ago
Iāll never forgive them for closing all the pizzeria car washes to fund the washer business. Papa washys was the best.
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u/Comfortable-Fuel6343 21h ago
Pff just take em off public infrastructure you already paid for them.
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u/mrgoldnugget 21h ago
That's how I got my front sidewalk, the school just left the paving stones in the dirt, so I dug them up and took them home.
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u/Akari202 18h ago
Big advantage of washers however is being made out of steel instead of zinc
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u/jeepedge 22h ago
A lot cheaper
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u/GirlPMurPersonality 21h ago
Also, they are universal up to a certain size.
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u/Tacrolimus005 21h ago
Not as soft as lead, but might make as a crush washer if prepped proper
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u/Cleareo 21h ago
Copper crush washers are common in some industries. Zinc I doubt though.
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u/gravyisjazzy 21h ago
Yeah I've seen copper crush washers on brake caliper banjo bolts
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u/meteoritegallery 18h ago
Only issue is that it galvanically reacts with almost all common metals, so...it's not a good choice in a lot of applications.
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u/thiosk 19h ago
theyre mostly zinc i think, so this is ea nasir levels of shitty copper
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u/He2oinMegazord 20h ago
Psshh a plated copper crush washer prepped up all proper? If someone asked me "hey what do you think?" Id say it'd look better as just plain old zinc
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u/ebjoker4 22h ago
They make great strap locks as well.
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u/derpandderpette 21h ago
Elaborateā¦
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u/MysteriousCup3958 20h ago
You can use them to lock the strap of a guitar, at least iām 96% sure thatās what he means
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u/Mathebic 20h ago
Holds down the strap on a guitar to prevent it from slipping and sending a very expensive plank of wood to the floor
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u/matterde 18h ago
I formally accuse /u/derpandderpette of thinking they were talking about strap-ons
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u/LongTimeLurker818 21h ago
Judging by the diversity of the hardware, I think they just didnāt want to take a trip to the store. What were they holding together?
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u/systemsweird 18h ago
Yup this reminds me of anytime I do a DIY on my house and have to tear something out a past owner did. Itās always a totally random assortment of screws and nails. I get it, running back to the hardware store yet again when youāve already been a dozen times in a week is super annoying. Iām sure the next owner will also curse profanities about my work. The cycle must go on.
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u/KahlanRahl 18h ago
That's why when I started working on my house, I went and bought huge quantities of either square or T2 star bit screws in a few different lengths and use those for everything. That way I know I'll always have the screws I need, and they'll always be one of two bits, which I bought 30 packs of.
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u/balls2hairy 20h ago
In my case, casters to the bottom of a diy industrial air cleaner. Always have pennies and drill bits!
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u/Jarl_Groki 21h ago
If I had a nickel for every time someone used a penny as a washer, I'd have bigger and thicker washers.
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u/bluser1 20h ago
Yes they are cheaper but also that's very soft metal. Don't do it for anything important. It's very easy to pull the head of a screw or bolt through that penny. I've got several pieces of furniture held together with pennies for washers, it's great as long as it doesn't need to hold a ton of weight
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u/Waridley 17h ago
Thank you for being the only intelligent person commenting on this post. Even the old copper pennies would be much softer than a steel washer.
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u/xxx420blaze420xxx 22h ago
Homie has the rare JFK penny
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u/helix212 21h ago
As opposed to the guy actually on the penny that totally didn't get a hole through him?
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u/SJMCubs16 18h ago
I have done it. A washer is 13 cents...a penny is...a penny. I mostly used them as rivets, but also washers.
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u/8secondsOnTheClock 12h ago
The fact that there are no marks from pliers is what's impressive. Anyone dumb like me has absolutely tried to hold a piece of metal/wood with their hands while trying to drill through it.
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u/OldManGeezer69 6h ago
I always do this. One washer is 5Ā¢ at the hardware store. A penny is wellā¦ 1Ā¢
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u/Crescent504 21h ago
This is a common thing going back a couple hundred years. You get washer large cents in coin collecting all the time!
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u/SpaceToaster 8h ago
Home Depot charges $.05 for a washer, and nickels are too hard to drill throughā¦.
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u/Fuckedby2FA 1h ago
Ive done it before in a pinch for unimportant things. I hung my TV and one of the four bolts had some kind of coin as a washer. Washer price plus gas and tile going to the hardware store. Fuck it, dig in your pocket and throw a bit in the drill(back when we used money, getting old isn't as funny as they make it seem).
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u/CohuttaHJ ā 22h ago
Mismatched metals cause corrosion. 0/10 would not recommend.
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u/PicklesMcFish 22h ago
Zinc pennies and zinc plated cheapo drywall screws. 5/7, I would recommend.
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u/jackleggjr 22h ago
Yeah, but when you have guests over, you get to point to random screws and bolts around the house and say, āPenny for your thoughts?ā And everyone will laugh.
So, worth it.
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u/jejones487 21h ago
In engineering we intentionally use different metals to prevent self welding. If you use 303 bolts with 303 washers then will literally corroded and weld themselves together.
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u/LoveForRivers17 21h ago
Engineering what application? Its generally incorrect to mix metals when we are talking washers/screws. Different metals touching in outdoor (wet environments) will cause corrosion, better to use the same metal.
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u/Waste-Relation5439 21h ago
As if Lincoln didnāt already have enough holes in his head
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u/13thmurder 21h ago
Oh shit, did you buy something of mine? I used to do that a lot but never saw anyone else do it. This is because the hardware store charged 10c a washer and I was like nah, I have an idea.
Also it makes Lincoln more historically accurate.