Sand bags

[Garandrew]

Were WW2 sand bags overfilled, or 3/4 of the way? I have 25 to fill for a display..40# each?

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[Harlan (Deceased)]

If you're building a wall with them don't overfill them. They stack flatter to make sturdier walls if they aren't packed full.
Plus, they aren't quite so heavy and hard to handle -

If you have traffic near them, throw a few in front so people don't lean against the wall and push it over.

[Garandrew]

[Harlan (Deceased)]

(I turned the lights on)

They look good Andy.

[Garandrew]

Believe me Harlan, I have 3 X 200 watt bulbs, and 3 X 60 watt floods on it, since I put in the camo ceiling, no light reflects down! Does it look OK?

[Harlan (Deceased)]

Hi Andy,

I think your whole display area is freakin awesome!

Without any reflected light from the ceiling and the walls, I bet that room really is dark! That's a very unfortunate development considering your rifles don't have enough light to show how great they are!

With everything in the room painted dark, and if you want to keep the ceiling dark too I think your only option to have enough light on your subjects would be to install track lights so you can direct light toward what needs to be seen well. If you did that I think the effect would be great and look similar to a museum exhibit where the subject areas are highlighted as the attraction.

Track lighting has a lot of benefits besides the lighting effects -
Once you install the track(S), it's very flexible how you can direct lights to what you want to see. If you move something or add something, you just reposition the light or add a light. If you use the small protection lights they put out a good amount of light to illuminate what you want and they don't use as much electricity as large overhead lights. You can get a bigger can track light and use a flood to illuminate a dark area of the room that needs some light. They're also very easy to adjust, and you can buy them separately and easily adds more lights. You simply push the base of the new light into the track and turn it 90 degrees. Also, you can buy the components separately and just get what you need so you don't have to buy a pre-made lighting set. The track base is a standard size that all kinds of fixtures fit into and there are different lengths for the track.

* Andy, the track lighting was difficult to explain, and I didn't know if you knew what I meant so I just took some pictures of the track light system I installed in my kitchen. It used to look like the dark hole of Calcutta in the display areas over the cabinets, the clock, and the big shelf I installed.

When we moved in there was a long florescent light in the middle of the kitchen ceiling. I got rid of it and just used the switched wire from it to feed the tracks I installed on either side then I could direct light where it needed to go.

[Garandrew]

Harlan, I have one, the track has 3 X 60 watt bulbs..not very bright.

[Harlan (Deceased)]

It's easy then. They make all kinds of different lights to fit the track and they should have a selection at your hardware store.

The two here are halogen lights that put out a ton of light and the whole fixture is the size of the palm of your hand. They're about $20 and come with the lamp installed.

[nzl1a1collector]

Nice sandbags but you will need to restack them. The seams of the sandbags HAVE to be on the inside and the tied tops have to be facing inwards too on the ends.

That's if you want them 'correct'

[Peter Laidler]

I've filled and laid a few sandbags. We 3/4 filled them so that they'd lay 'brick' fashion with no gaps in the corners/edges and beat the crap out of them with a shovel as we laid them. Bullets will tear them apart in seconds so lay another row behind them and bunker up the front with earth using the stuff you've dug out behind them.

Until recently we used to get the platoon commanders courses to dig in by making a small 5 man bunker. Then at the end of the week, the course would stand to the rear while it was 'assaulted' by a machine gun crew................... which blew it apart. We usually use a couple of section ground role GPMG's but a few years ago I demonstrated a Vickers MMG firepower against one of the sandbagged bunkers with 1,000 rounds in 200 or so round bursts (actually, we let the top few students on the course do the shooting including a Gurkha and a Paratrooper). Even the breeze blocks sandwiched between the sandbags just disintegrated. Looked awsome on the end of course video....... To be honest, you're better off underground