Bed of nails has been a curiosity for ages. One always thinks Indian men lying on one for days... at least I do. Anyway its been a staple of magic shows and physics classes alike.
How to make a bed of nails and how it works. Picture galleries of people and the bed of nails. Wanna make one for yourself? well you can read the instructions on how to do so.
A bed of nails has been part of performing arts, magic shows, physics exams and religious ceremony for as long as I can remember. Very few odd practices ever reach such stardom as the bed of nails has.
Most recently, the bed has moved into the body modification community as some of the pictures below show.
So how does the "Bed of Nails" work.
Basically, it has to do with distribution of weight and physics
There are lots of large nails in the bed of nails. When you lie on it, your body touches about half of the nails – that’s about 750 – so for a 75kg body each nail will press with a barely noticeable force of about 100 grams. Because the nails are large (4-inch), the points are not particularly sharp. You can press a balloon onto the nails without it bursting.
If this works without injury and pain depends on the distribution of your weight. If you stand on the thing you will most likely hurt yourself badly. This story is here as an interesting fact, I would not want anyone to actually try this... they may get it wrong!
From another article about the physics behind the bed of nails trick.
This illustrates that the distribution of a weight over a large enough area reduces the pressure below the piercing breakpoint of the skin.
The apparatus consists of a specially constructed bed of approximately 700-900 nails evenly spaced on a 1cm X 1cm grid(the size of beds differ as do the amount of nails). It is recommended that if someone demonstrates this that they place two chairs either side of the bed of nails and initially supports the weight via these chairs. Once he has carefully positioned his feet on the bed of nails he may release his grip from the chairs easing his weight slowly onto the nails. The weight distributed over that much surface area should not be enough force to break the skin.
How to Make a Bed of Nails
About 12 man-hours is required. Its mass is 20kg, mostly due to the nails. The materials required cost about $170 -
Two sheets of peg board and one sheet of 9mm plywood, 900mm by 600mm
4 metres of 42x19mm batten and 2 metres of 42x12mm batten
20kg of 4-inch flat head nails – bright steel (galvanised are harder to get through the pegboard holes). A large hardware store should have this much in stock. If you buy four 5kg boxes, check samples to see that the nails really are identical. The nails should fit snugly in the holes of the peg board (both were 4.5mm diameter in our model)
About 40 wood screws (8-gauge) with flat-bottomed heads, and wood glue
Four heavy-duty handles for carrying it about
Simple tools: wood saw, screwdriver, hammer, hand drill with 4mm bit
Clamp the 3 boards together and trim two edges so they become the same size. Cut batten to make a rectangular box that fits to the inside edges of the board. Screw the box together at the corners. Glue and screw it to one of the peg boards. Attach strong handles to the sides of the box – these will be handy for carrying it about.
Push a few pairs of nails up into the box and drop in some lengths of the thinner battens. These will stop the middle of the box from sagging or bulging out. The thinner battens must fit between diagonal rows of nails so that they don’t block any holes. Going along the diagonals allows the inner battens to be as thick as possible - such is the power of geometry. We used two long ones and two short inner battens, but any arrangement will do. Mark the positions of the inner battens on the outside of the box, or you’ll lose where they were.
Place the second peg board over the nails and press it down. Make sure the holes of both peg boards are lined up (the nails will ensure this). Screw both peg boards to the edge and middle battens (one screw per side and one screw per middle batten will do, for each peg board). These are just to hold things in place - more screws will be added through the plywood sheet at the end. Turn the box over and support it on two bricks. Now push a nail through every hole, starting with the diagonals alongside the internal battens. This takes several hours but with practice you can press a nail through the first peg board, find the hole in the second peg board and push it through. Tap it with a small hammer – very little force is needed. When most nails are in place remove the bricks and fill all the holes with nails. Check that none of the nails has a sharp burr on its tip – the points of 4-inch are really quite blunt. With all the nails fully in place, place the plywood sheet over the nail heads and screw it into place. This needs a good number of screws – 3-4 along each side and 3-4 along each inner batten. Drill pilot holes through the plywood and the lower pegboard so the screws bite into the side and inner battens. The plywood will keep the pegboards in place and stop the nails from sliding back out. That’s all there is to it! One person, or two people walking in step, can easily carry it about. Point the nails away from your body when carrying it, and be careful not to let anyone stumble or anything fall onto the nails. If carried in the boot of a car, put a spare sheet of plywood or a heavy rug over the nails so you can put things on top of it. It’s easier to get onto the bed of nails if it stands on two milk crates.
Usable Piercings - Some BodMod and piercing enthusiasts are trying to turn eyeglasses from geeky to trendy with their line of extreme pierced eyeglasses. No frames sitting on your nose here, nope, they are attached and pierced through the nose... Inventive for sure
yep, If this ain't redneck, don't know what is... the title is true, now this happened a few years back, but this is the first I heard of it and the story is crazy. Some woman actually got a tattoo from a man that came to her door selling tattoos... and, she got really sick from the nutty and stupid ordeal.
Ill_Articles 
of magic shows and physics classes alike.
A bed of nails has been part of performing arts, magic shows, physics exams and religious ceremony for as long as I can remember. Very few odd practices ever reach such stardom as the bed of nails has.
reduces the pressure below the piercing breakpoint of the skin.
Apatani Tribal body modification. These people are known for the huge nose plugs worn by woman and the stripes along the forehead and chin.
yep, If this ain't redneck, don't know what is... the title is true, now this happened a few years back, but this is the first I heard of it and the story is crazy. Some woman actually got a tattoo from a man that came to her door selling tattoos... and, she got really sick from the nutty and stupid ordeal.