clipped

Post here, get answers here.

Something launched that molding at high speed at your house.
Most likely kickback from a table saw.

If you can't find the launching device, you have little
chance of proving who did it.

It's very obvious is was not done by hand.


Far out! The shingle must be very brittle, because it basicly broke
away in the shape of the molding. If it had been broken with great
force, it should have had the whole center caved in. I suspect the
shingles were just about gone and the particle board had been wet.
Particle board turns to sawdust. One lucky spear chucker on an elevated
point of the construction site might have done it. No tornados in the
neighborhood? Any other debris in the yard that suggests this took
practice?

One evening this past September I discovered that a piece of molding,
scrap from the construction site behind my house, was impaled through
the back wall of my house.

7' 6" off the ground.

The police think that someone walked through the contruction site,
picked up the molding, hopped a fence, cut through my yard, and shoved
the molding through my back wall.

At a DOWNWARD angle, seven and a half feet up.

I don't have a more logical explanation but this seems weird. The
contractors admit the molding was their scrap but denied any knowledge
of how it got into my yard. There's no other construction debris and
no evidence of an explosion or other molding-throwing activity.

Photos and more information he

http://www.ivyleaguecomedy.com/mystery.html

If you have any ideas please let me know through the email address
listed on the Ivy website (or post here).

Thanks,

Shaun Eli

Put a long board in a kids hand and the only thing it can become is a
spear....(well ok maybe a light saber too)
it met your house on a downward trajectory.

"Shaun Eli" wrote in message
...
One evening this past September I discovered that a piece of molding,
scrap from the construction site behind my house, was impaled through
the back wall of my house.

7' 6" off the ground.

The police think that someone walked through the contruction site,
picked up the molding, hopped a fence, cut through my yard, and shoved
the molding through my back wall.

At a DOWNWARD angle, seven and a half feet up.

I don't have a more logical explanation but this seems weird. The
contractors admit the molding was their scrap but denied any knowledge
of how it got into my yard. There's no other construction debris and
no evidence of an explosion or other molding-throwing activity.

Photos and more information he

http://www.ivyleaguecomedy.com/mystery.html

If you have any ideas please let me know through the email address
listed on the Ivy website (or post here).

Thanks,

Shaun Eli

Shaun Eli writes:

One evening this past September I discovered that a piece of molding,
scrap from the construction site behind my house, was impaled through
the back wall of my house.

7' 6" off the ground.

The police think that someone walked through the contruction site,
picked up the molding, hopped a fence, cut through my yard, and shoved
the molding through my back wall.

At a DOWNWARD angle, seven and a half feet up.

I don't have a more logical explanation but this seems weird. The
contractors admit the molding was their scrap but denied any knowledge
of how it got into my yard. There's no other construction debris and
no evidence of an explosion or other molding-throwing activity.

Photos and more information he

http://www.ivyleaguecomedy.com/mystery.html

If you have any ideas please let me know through the email address
listed on the Ivy website (or post here).

Post here, get answers here.

Something launched that molding at high speed at your house.
Most likely kickback from a table saw.

If you can't find the launching device, you have little
chance of proving who did it.

It's very obvious is was not done by hand.

Shaun Eli wrote:
One evening this past September I discovered that a piece of molding,
scrap from the construction site behind my house, was impaled through
the back wall of my house.

7' 6" off the ground.

The police think that someone walked through the contruction site,
picked up the molding, hopped a fence, cut through my yard, and shoved
the molding through my back wall.

At a DOWNWARD angle, seven and a half feet up.

I don't have a more logical explanation but this seems weird. The
contractors admit the molding was their scrap but denied any knowledge
of how it got into my yard. There's no other construction debris and
no evidence of an explosion or other molding-throwing activity.

Photos and more information he

http://www.ivyleaguecomedy.com/mystery.html

If you have any ideas please let me know through the email address
listed on the Ivy website (or post here).

Assuming the pictures aren't faked, it must have been thrown somehow.
Without the details of the distances from the site and much other
ancillary information, the "how" is indecipherable. What is the
exterior siding material and what sheathing? Knowing that one could
make an estimate of the required velocity for penetration. Typically
one doesn't see that kind of damage for less than 75 mph wind-thrown
debris (which debris, of course, isn't traveling at the wind speed), but
I suppose a kid w/ a slingshot could have made a javelin toss and just
gotten lucky when it came down. Unless the construction site is quite
near, the likelihood of a piece thrown by a saw kickback making it far
enough with sufficient velocity is quite low if even possible.

--

First of all, I know that the photos weren't faked because I took
them. Obviously I can't prove to you that they're real... but a
police officer, a police detective and the village building inspector,
as well as my neighbors, did see the board sticking out of my wall.

I thought about kick-back from a table saw but we're talking about
launching something well over fifty feet and at a pretty high rate of
speed to go through pieces of wood.

Assuming I'm doing the math correctly:

a B&D 10" table saw has a no-load speed of 5000 rpm (now that may be a
consumer model and a pro model used by contractors may go faster, but
this is what info I found)

5000 rpm X10/12 (to convert to feet) X pi = 13,000 feet per minute
speed of the outside of the circular saw blade

13,000 X 60 min/hr /5280 = roughly 150 mph

Now that's with no load, possibly the saw runs slower with
resistance. Anyway, that is with the saw completely catching the
molding and launching it, somehow upward, then flying probably 60 feet
and crashing through the house.

I guess that could do it, but it seems unlikely.

I can't imagine a sling-shot would fling an 8 foot (roughly, I'm
guessing) piece of wood hard enough to shoot through so much wood.

No, no other debris in the yard at all.

Nobody could chuck this by hand from even right next to the house and
get all the way through. Even holding onto it and ramming it into the
house would take a lot of force.

You'd have to hit the house pretty hard just to make it through the
sheetrock, yet this went through two layers of shingles and the backer
board too.

Note-- it wasn't particle board it was some other, weaker stuff that
was a bit crumbly. I can't tell if it was wet because obviously by
the time I got there to repair it, there'd been a hole in my house for
a few days.

You don't hear about golf balls going through people's walls, and they
may fly at 100+ mph and they're not much bigger than the side of that
board.

Shaun Eli wrote:
No, no other debris in the yard at all.

Nobody could chuck this by hand from even right next to the house and
get all the way through. Even holding onto it and ramming it into the
house would take a lot of force.

You'd have to hit the house pretty hard just to make it through the
sheetrock, yet this went through two layers of shingles and the backer
board too.

Note-- it wasn't particle board it was some other, weaker stuff that
was a bit crumbly. I can't tell if it was wet because obviously by
the time I got there to repair it, there'd been a hole in my house for
a few days.

You don't hear about golf balls going through people's walls, and they
may fly at 100+ mph and they're not much bigger than the side of that
board.

Looks thrown and hit the house in its downward arc. For balance, you
would point thinner edge first. Shingles and sheet rock would be no big
impediment to thrown object. Pointed end would also penetrate more
easily as less surface area means more concentrated energy on contact.

According to Shaun Eli :

If you have any ideas please let me know through the email address
listed on the Ivy website (or post here).

I think the most likely possibility is that someone tried
a javelin toss. Once a piece of trim that size got in the
air, if it was falling straight at the time of impact, it
wouldn't have a problem puncturing many houses. Most likely
kids after hours. But perhaps a worker was aiming it at the
dumpster and overshot.

Another possibility is that someone was trying to ripsaw it,
and the saw kicked it back. That can sometimes have surprising
force, and fling things quite a distance. I've heard of
pieces of 2x4 going through garage doors, sheathed/sided
walls, or punching part way through cinderblock. Can't tell for
sure from the pictures, but the wide edge of the trim looks like
it may have been sawn.

If it was a worker, they might not even have seen where it went,
or, decided to not tell anybody.

7' up after a (usually/mostly) horizontal kickback is unlikely.
It'd have hit the ground before then. So, javelin toss is my
main guess ;-)

Looks like MDF trim, it's unlikely to be stiff enough to be
"hand pushed" thru your wall, sharp end or otherwise. It'd
just bend. MDF trim is quite "floppy".
--
Chris Lewis,

Age and Treachery will Triumph over Youth and Skill
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

According to Shaun Eli :
13,000 X 60 min/hr /5280 = roughly 150 mph

Now that's with no load, possibly the saw runs slower with
resistance. Anyway, that is with the saw completely catching the
molding and launching it, somehow upward, then flying probably 60 feet
and crashing through the house.

I guess that could do it, but it seems unlikely.

That would _certainly_ do it. 150 MPH is a _lot_, and if it's
running straight, it won't slow down much until it hits something.

8' of MDF is fairly heavy, so it has the mass.

Yes, saw kickback is mostly horizontal, so it would have almost
definately hit the ground first. The saw would have to be tipped, or,
it "flew" in the wind.

Is the fat edge of that trim sawn? It looks it. If it is,
it's suggestive of kickback. If the cut is dramatically different
(as in, it looks as if the last part of the cut got ripped or
shredded), it's more likely.

I can't imagine a sling-shot would fling an 8 foot (roughly, I'm
guessing) piece of wood hard enough to shoot through so much wood.

Actually, that's not hard at all. Couple of decent bungie cords
could do it. Perhaps even a heavy bow. Could they have used the
fence (eg posts) for a sling-shot "frame"?
--
Chris Lewis,

Age and Treachery will Triumph over Youth and Skill
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

According to Shaun Eli :

You don't hear about golf balls going through people's walls, and they
may fly at 100+ mph and they're not much bigger than the side of that
board.

But they have a _lot_ less mass than that chunk of trim did.
--
Chris Lewis,

Age and Treachery will Triumph over Youth and Skill
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

On Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:46:57 -0500, Norminn
wrote:

No tornados in the
neighborhood?

My thoughts.

Hurrincae Andrew (pic)

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/gall...-damage-1a.jpg

Tornado damge (pic)

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/fsd/storms/t...vernonbarn.jpg

If there was no Tornado and if Roger Clemens was not available then it
could only be one thing. It was launched from a table saw. Inspect it
and see if you can see individual saw blade marks that could only be
created by a launch scenario.

Frank wrote:

Chris Lewis wrote:

According to Shaun Eli :

You don't hear about golf balls going through people's walls, and they
may fly at 100+ mph and they're not much bigger than the side of that
board.


But they have a _lot_ less mass than that chunk of trim did.


Right. Energy is mass times velocity squared and, as I said in one
reply, pointy objects penetrate better. A bullet proof vest that can
stop a .44 mag bullet, will not stop an ice pick.

If it was my house, I would try to repeat penetrating the siding with
the same kind of wood. I would not throw it, as I surely would miss the
target and break a window ) I threw a spoon at my brother once, and
it sliced the back of his head. I was a little kid, and it was just a
teaspoon ... his head was kind of mushy )

I had a flat tire couple of years ago .. part of a razor blade
embedded. I doubt that I could repeat that, either. Angle of attack
must be the secret.

Again, I point out .. the hole in the siding is almost perfectly flat
along the flat edge of the board. It HAS to be rotten siding and
deteriorated particle board. Some kid tried it once and got lucky.
Happens all the time )

wrote:

If there was no Tornado and if Roger Clemens was not available then it
could only be one thing. It was launched from a table saw. Inspect it
and see if you can see individual saw blade marks that could only be
created by a launch scenario.


That would seem to require that the molding was being sawn lengthwise.
Not likely. And wouldn't a rotary saw flip it, rather than shoot it
straight or in an upward arc?

Chris Lewis wrote:
According to Shaun Eli :

You don't hear about golf balls going through people's walls, and they
may fly at 100+ mph and they're not much bigger than the side of that
board.

But they have a _lot_ less mass than that chunk of trim did.

Right. Energy is mass times velocity squared and, as I said in one
reply, pointy objects penetrate better. A bullet proof vest that can
stop a .44 mag bullet, will not stop an ice pick.

On Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:40:38 -0500, Norminn
wrote:

wrote:

If there was no Tornado and if Roger Clemens was not available then it
could only be one thing. It was launched from a table saw. Inspect it
and see if you can see individual saw blade marks that could only be
created by a launch scenario.


That would seem to require that the molding was being sawn lengthwise.
Not likely. And wouldn't a rotary saw flip it, rather than shoot it
straight or in an upward arc?

It could of gone into the siding straight and upon deceleration kicked
up.

I do believe that it was ripped (cut length-wise) but I'm not
positive. I've left a message for the detective who investigated-- he
has, or had, the molding, and maybe he can return it.

On Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:40:38 -0500, Norminn
wrote:

wrote:

If there was no Tornado and if Roger Clemens was not available then it
could only be one thing. It was launched from a table saw. Inspect it
and see if you can see individual saw blade marks that could only be
created by a launch scenario.


That would seem to require that the molding was being sawn lengthwise.

Maybe it wasn't being sawed. Maybe it was being used as a guide and
somehow got wedged and thrown.

Having shot my share of wood out of tablesaws I can speak from experience,
it generally comes out straight or at a pretty flat angle, and the velocity
is impressive, I've seen wood hit the wall of the shop 20 feet away with a
really impressive BANG, and it was still on the way up, not down after the
20 feet, so I can imagine a piece being thrown 50 feet and through a wall
pretty easily.
I would pay dearly to see the look on the face of the table saw operator if
this is what happened and he saw it fly into the next yard and go through
the wall :-)

But you make a good point..was there any sign on the wood of it being sawn
the long way? A kerf or at least a chunk taken by the blade? Ripping rather
than crosscutting is rather unusual for a piece of molding, though it does
have to be done on occasion for some odd project.

--

Mike S.

"Norminn" wrote in message
...

That would seem to require that the molding was being sawn lengthwise.
Not likely. And wouldn't a rotary saw flip it, rather than shoot it
straight or in an upward arc?

On Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:40:43 -0800 (PST), Shaun Eli
wrote:

I do believe that it was ripped (cut length-wise) but I'm not
positive. I've left a message for the detective who investigated-- he
has, or had, the molding, and maybe he can return it.

The same one that suggest it was shoved through the wall? Good luck!

Shaun Eli writes:

I thought about kick-back from a table saw but we're talking about
launching something well over fifty feet and at a pretty high rate of
speed to go through pieces of wood.

Assuming I'm doing the math correctly:

a B&D 10" table saw has a no-load speed of 5000 rpm (now that may be a
consumer model and a pro model used by contractors may go faster, but
this is what info I found)

5000 rpm X10/12 (to convert to feet) X pi = 13,000 feet per minute
speed of the outside of the circular saw blade

13,000 X 60 min/hr /5280 = roughly 150 mph

Now that's with no load, possibly the saw runs slower with
resistance. Anyway, that is with the saw completely catching the
molding and launching it, somehow upward, then flying probably 60 feet
and crashing through the house.

I guess that could do it, but it seems unlikely.

I don't see why you don't think something traveling at 150 mph
can't travel 50 feet and penetrate your house. The angle isn't
a big issue. The wood could have been deflected after it hit your house
by something in the wall.

A table saw seems like a likely culprit but I suppose there could have
been other machinery on site that would do the same thing.

Mainly, there is no way someone threw that at your house and did that.

As far as the police, I doubt you are going to get anywhere with that.
You don't have a lot of damage there. Get yourself a new outside shingle
and patch the hole on the inside.

Stuff happens.

Chris Lewis wrote:
According to Shaun Eli :

You don't hear about golf balls going through people's walls, and they
may fly at 100+ mph and they're not much bigger than the side of that
board.

But they have a _lot_ less mass than that chunk of trim did.

And the blunt surface area, too...

If what he says it's only shingles w/ no sheathing underneath, it
wouldn't take a whole lot and the damage pattern certainly makes it look
like it wouldn't take much as there is absolutely no ancillary damage
around the hole itself.

I'd guess it's just one of those fluke events that makes ya' wonder...

--

"Shaun Eli" wrote in message
13,000 X 60 min/hr /5280 = roughly 150 mph

Now that's with no load, possibly the saw runs slower with
resistance. Anyway, that is with the saw completely catching the
molding and launching it, somehow upward, then flying probably 60 feet
and crashing through the house.

I guess that could do it, but it seems unlikely.

I can't imagine a sling-shot would fling an 8 foot (roughly, I'm
guessing) piece of wood hard enough to shoot through so much wood.

Ask the guys on rec.woodworking I've seen photos of pieces of wood stuck in
garage doors and some serious injuries from kickbacks. Could the saw have
been on the second floor with an open window? That would account for the
height, as would an arc if it launched upward. Can't imagine what it would
have done to a body.

Shaun Eli wrote:
One evening this past September I discovered that a piece of molding,
scrap from the construction site behind my house, was impaled through
the back wall of my house.

7' 6" off the ground.

The police think that someone walked through the contruction site,
picked up the molding, hopped a fence, cut through my yard, and shoved
the molding through my back wall.

At a DOWNWARD angle, seven and a half feet up.

I don't have a more logical explanation but this seems weird. The
contractors admit the molding was their scrap but denied any knowledge
of how it got into my yard. There's no other construction debris and
no evidence of an explosion or other molding-throwing activity.

Photos and more information he

http://www.ivyleaguecomedy.com/mystery.html

If you have any ideas please let me know through the email address
listed on the Ivy website (or post here).

Sometimes looking at a problem backwards yields the correct answer.

What if the hole was already there, and the stick was but an attempt to plug
it?

Sometimes ignorance is evidence. For example, "It was space aliens" is a
viable answer because what else could it be?

Shaun Eli wrote:

I do believe that it was ripped (cut length-wise) but I'm not
positive. I've left a message for the detective who investigated-- he
has, or had, the molding, and maybe he can return it.


The detective???? Heck, if the board had gone through my head, it
wouldn't rate a detective in my city ) "Sorry, there's no law against
flying boards. If you hadn't been sitting in that particular chair in
your living room, you wouldn't have this problem. I can't bother the
prosecutor over a worthless piece of wood." They haven't solved a
murder here since 1903, except for the guy who hit a cop, was alive and
healthy when he exited his vehicle but died suddenly before the accident
scene was cleaned up. They proved he didn't get killed by a bunch of
angry cops. Oh, well. They still send out four cars for every
ambulance call. Makes me feel safe seeing all those flashing lights.

wrote:

On Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:40:38 -0500, Norminn
wrote:



wrote:



If there was no Tornado and if Roger Clemens was not available then it
could only be one thing. It was launched from a table saw. Inspect it
and see if you can see individual saw blade marks that could only be
created by a launch scenario.




That would seem to require that the molding was being sawn lengthwise.



Maybe it wasn't being sawed. Maybe it was being used as a guide and
somehow got wedged and thrown.


Can't picture that, except that it seems it would just flop it over and
smack the sawer in the .....? Hmmm, I used to take care of guys at the
factory when the polishing belt grapped a hunk of stainless and threw it
at them. Easy to diagnose, even though they were speechless for some
time. Death is kinder )

There was no hole there to plug up because I'd be the only one to do
it, and I wouldn't have stolen a piece of wood from a construction
site...

And yes, I did replace the shingles. Also fixed the inside.

As far as the police-- I live in a small town. When I told the
detective where I lived he said he'd spent a lot of time in my
basement during his childhood as he was friends with the children of
the previous owners.

I haven't yet accused him of putting the holes in my basement
ceiling-- the kids pushed pool cues through the soft ceiling tiles,
leaving round holes.

According to Mike S. :
But you make a good point..was there any sign on the wood of it being sawn
the long way? A kerf or at least a chunk taken by the blade? Ripping rather
than crosscutting is rather unusual for a piece of molding, though it does
have to be done on occasion for some odd project.

Ripping trim isn't that unusual, especially in renovations. Eg: window
trim too close to a sidewall or where there's a step in flooring level,
etc.
--
Chris Lewis,

Age and Treachery will Triumph over Youth and Skill
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

According to dpb :
Chris Lewis wrote:
According to Shaun Eli :

You don't hear about golf balls going through people's walls, and they
may fly at 100+ mph and they're not much bigger than the side of that
board.

But they have a _lot_ less mass than that chunk of trim did.

And the blunt surface area, too...

If what he says it's only shingles w/ no sheathing underneath, it
wouldn't take a whole lot and the damage pattern certainly makes it look
like it wouldn't take much as there is absolutely no ancillary damage
around the hole itself.

Thin cedar (eg: shingle) gets very brittle.

Wouldn't take much at all to punch it like that.

If you wanted to repeat the test, I'd stick a similar piece of trim
on saw horses a few feet away pointing at the wall, and hitting
the end with a baseball bat. If you hit the thing clean & true,
it'll punch through.

Or a big bungie cord.
--
Chris Lewis,

Age and Treachery will Triumph over Youth and Skill
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

According to Norminn :

I had a flat tire couple of years ago .. part of a razor blade
embedded. I doubt that I could repeat that, either. Angle of attack
must be the secret.

The object has to be straight relative to the direction of travel,
and the speed at which it's going has to be high enough that the
object doesn't have "time to bend".

Under those conditions, the object can be considered to be
an absolutely rigid object with a tiny cross-section, and lots
of mass.

For example, Mythbusters has an episode where they puncture (IIRC)
a telephone pole with thin metal rod propelled out of a compressed
air gun. You can't do it by hand, but if you launch the object
fast enough, and it hits straight enough, it will stay straight
long enough to punch through. You might even be able to do the
same thing simply by force of gravity if you drop it from high
enough and fletch it like an arrow so it flies straight.

Again, I point out .. the hole in the siding is almost perfectly flat
along the flat edge of the board. It HAS to be rotten siding and
deteriorated particle board.

Cedar gets so brittle with age, I can see exactly that happening
without it rotting (softening) per-se when hit by something with
a cross-section that narrow and blunt.
--
Chris Lewis,

Age and Treachery will Triumph over Youth and Skill
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

On Nov 19, 5:09 pm, Dan Espen
wrote:
Shaun Eli writes:
I thought about kick-back from a table saw but we're talking about
launching something well over fifty feet and at a pretty high rate of
speed to go through pieces of wood.

Assuming I'm doing the math correctly:

a B&D 10" table saw has a no-load speed of 5000 rpm (now that may be a
consumer model and a pro model used by contractors may go faster, but
this is what info I found)

5000 rpm X10/12 (to convert to feet) X pi = 13,000 feet per minute
speed of the outside of the circular saw blade

13,000 X 60 min/hr /5280 = roughly 150 mph

Now that's with no load, possibly the saw runs slower with
resistance. Anyway, that is with the saw completely catching the
molding and launching it, somehow upward, then flying probably 60 feet
and crashing through the house.

I guess that could do it, but it seems unlikely.

I don't see why you don't think something traveling at 150 mph
can't travel 50 feet and penetrate your house. The angle isn't
a big issue. The wood could have been deflected after it hit your house
by something in the wall.

A table saw seems like a likely culprit but I suppose there could have
been other machinery on site that would do the same thing.

Mainly, there is no way someone threw that at your house and did that.

As far as the police, I doubt you are going to get anywhere with that.
You don't have a lot of damage there. Get yourself a new outside shingle
and patch the hole on the inside.

Stuff happens.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

that doesn't look like 7'6" off the ground though, it's just above the
foundation?????

Mark

I measured it-- it's seven and a half feet up. What you're calling
the foundation is actually the level of the foundation in the front of
the house but the yard slopes down toward the back, and this is the
back of the house. So the concrete goes pretty high up.

If you look at the first photo you can see the top edge of a doorway
off to the right, below the level of the molding. Doors are around
six and a half feet tall. And the window visible on my neighbor's
house to the left is their second floor.

On Nov 21, 8:23 am, Shaun Eli wrote:
I measured it-- it's seven and a half feet up. What you're calling
the foundation is actually the level of the foundation in the front of
the house but the yard slopes down toward the back, and this is the
back of the house. So the concrete goes pretty high up.

If you look at the first photo you can see the top edge of a doorway
off to the right, below the level of the molding. Doors are around
six and a half feet tall. And the window visible on my neighbor's
house to the left is their second floor.

OK...
see the white powder on the side of the bookcase.....

that means something....

i'm not sure what, but probably that the impact was high velocity and
blew the paint plaster etc off the wall and onto the bookcase. If
someone stabed the house I don't think that powder would be there and
there would be more debre on top of the heat register insted of on the
floor.

interesting..send it to CSI... :-)

Mark

Mark wrote:

On Nov 21, 8:23 am, Shaun Eli wrote:


I measured it-- it's seven and a half feet up. What you're calling
the foundation is actually the level of the foundation in the front of
the house but the yard slopes down toward the back, and this is the
back of the house. So the concrete goes pretty high up.

If you look at the first photo you can see the top edge of a doorway
off to the right, below the level of the molding. Doors are around
six and a half feet tall. And the window visible on my neighbor's
house to the left is their second floor.



OK...
see the white powder on the side of the bookcase.....

that means something....

i'm not sure what, but probably that the impact was high velocity and
blew the paint plaster etc off the wall and onto the bookcase. If
someone stabed the house I don't think that powder would be there and
there would be more debre on top of the heat register insted of on the
floor.

interesting..send it to CSI... :-)

Mark


Wonder what kind of toy could have launced the molding. I remember
bottle bombs, and ........potato guns? Some kind of gun that shot out
potatoes? Those memories are receding )

According to Norminn :
Mark wrote:
OK...
see the white powder on the side of the bookcase.....

that means something....

You've never smashed drywall I assume - it gets _everywhere_ ;-)

i'm not sure what, but probably that the impact was high velocity and
blew the paint plaster etc off the wall and onto the bookcase. If
someone stabed the house I don't think that powder would be there and
there would be more debre on top of the heat register insted of on the
floor.

Wonder what kind of toy could have launced the molding. I remember
bottle bombs, and ........potato guns? Some kind of gun that shot out
potatoes? Those memories are receding )

bungie cords'd do it.

People don't seem to have a good concept of kinetic energy. The
piece of trim probably weighed several pounds, going at any reasonable
speed, being straight at point of impact, would punch through brittle
cedar and OSB/particle board plus drywall held rigidly in place like
a knife through butter.

You could experiment by setting up a chunk of shingle and particle
board held horizontally and rigid, and try dropping a similar piece of trim
straight from 20' or more. Or, graft a piece of trim on the face of a
2 1/2 pound hand sledge and letting fly.

I do high power rocketry. Rockets weighing 20 pounds or more going
to thousands of feet.

You ain't nothing until you see a high power rocket made out of not
much more than cardboard tube[+] coming in ballistically (not under
power, but the nose cone still in place) straight down from even only
a few hundred feet. Depending on soil conditions, you can have
the rocket _completely_ bury itself past the fins. I've seen
small rockets made out of just cardboard (eg: some of the larger
Estes models) weighing less than a pound penetrating 6" or
more in hardpan, which is _much_ tougher than cedar shingle.

This type of mishap is called "shovel recovery" - because you
won't get it back without a shovel.

Another "techie term" is "core sample" - the nose cone
completely detached taking the parachute with it, and you
end up with a "core sample" of dirt in the body tube ;-)

[Yeah, we're pretty serious about safety flying these things.
Large exclusion zones, and in the case of high power,
FAA/MOT event approval. Last big event I was at (200+ pound
rocket to 44K feet at Mach 2.4 was just one of the more
spectacular flights) we had Ministry of Transport officials
out watching and doing the oohs and ahhs with the rest of us ;-)]

[+] Eg fiberglassed cardboard tube or something fairly similar in
properties to a standard plastic thinwall pipe. Eg: PVC septic
tank pipe or central-vac piping.
--
Chris Lewis,

Age and Treachery will Triumph over Youth and Skill
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

Chris Lewis wrote:
According to Norminn :
Mark wrote:
OK...
see the white powder on the side of the bookcase.....

that means something....

You've never smashed drywall I assume - it gets _everywhere_ ;-)

i'm not sure what, but probably that the impact was high velocity and
blew the paint plaster etc off the wall and onto the bookcase. If
someone stabed the house I don't think that powder would be there and
there would be more debre on top of the heat register insted of on the
floor.

Wonder what kind of toy could have launced the molding. I remember
bottle bombs, and ........potato guns? Some kind of gun that shot out
potatoes? Those memories are receding )

bungie cords'd do it.

People don't seem to have a good concept of kinetic energy. The
piece of trim probably weighed several pounds, going at any reasonable
speed, being straight at point of impact, would punch through brittle
cedar and OSB/particle board plus drywall held rigidly in place like
a knife through butter.
....

The problem w/ this piece is managing to get it to fly straight for any
distance. Must've happened, but surely a fluke. I'd suspect in a
hundred tries however it got launched wouldn't do that again...

The paper on the wallboard may actually been as much resistance as the
shingle(s) were. It's suprising, but apparently there was no sheathing
at all.

--

According to dpb :

The problem w/ this piece is managing to get it to fly straight for any
distance. Must've happened, but surely a fluke. I'd suspect in a
hundred tries however it got launched wouldn't do that again...

I've had occasions to watch the behaviour of long flexible objects in
air (don't ask ;-), they tend to "flap" unless flung perfectly straight,
but they'll eventually straighten out. The "stable" configuration
is usually falling flat (broadside to direction of travel), but before
it gets there it may progress through "spear" orientation several times ;-)

I suspect that with a bit of practise and adjustment for
distance and angle you can get it to do that a lot better than
once out of 100. But your accuracy would probably suck.

Spears and arrows are much easier because they're made so that they will
fall point first. Which requires that the center of pressure (CP)
(think: "center of area perpendicular to direction of travel")
is behind the center of gravity (CG). This is the cardinal rule
of rocketry. Unless you do active stabilization...

The paper on the wallboard may actually been as much resistance as the
shingle(s) were. It's suprising, but apparently there was no sheathing
at all.

There was apparently some sort of composite material as sheathing
(OSB or...). Implied to be "soft".

Actually, the fiberglass batts may have decelerated the piece more
than the rest of the wall did ;-)
--
Chris Lewis,

Age and Treachery will Triumph over Youth and Skill
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

Chris Lewis wrote:
According to dpb :

The problem w/ this piece is managing to get it to fly straight for any
distance. Must've happened, but surely a fluke. I'd suspect in a
hundred tries however it got launched wouldn't do that again...

I've had occasions to watch the behaviour of long flexible objects in
air (don't ask ;-), they tend to "flap" unless flung perfectly straight,
but they'll eventually straighten out. The "stable" configuration
is usually falling flat (broadside to direction of travel), but before
it gets there it may progress through "spear" orientation several times ;-)

I suspect that with a bit of practise and adjustment for
distance and angle you can get it to do that a lot better than
once out of 100. But your accuracy would probably suck.
....

It seems highly unlikely that this didn't "just happen" from the
construction site. How, I've no real clue w/o being able to see it, but
if, as OP wrote it's something like 50-ft to the rear fence plus the
distance to a work area where it might have gotten launched by a table
saw, it's a real puzzle it would fly so straight so far imo. Your
rockets, spears, etc., are symmetric and designed specifically for
stability--this is none of the above. In wind-field incidents, there's
a continuing force that helps. One presumes this was simply launched
somehow. Again, strange things happen...

--

In article , Shaun Eli wrote:
One evening this past September I discovered that a piece of molding,
scrap from the construction site behind my house, was impaled through
the back wall of my house.

7' 6" off the ground.

I am not the least bit surprised that this projectile would
penetrate your home. That's pretty easy.

What is mystifying is how the projectile was launched in
the first place. I have a hard time believing a saw of any
kind would be able to transfer sufficient energy to the
molding. I don't think a saw or other tool accident would
have resulted in this "angle of attack" either.

Can you estimate the weight (mass) of the molding for us?

A catapult initiated launch seems much more plausible.
It could certainly achieve the observed result although
it would take a deliberate/intentional act.

I'd certainly look and/or enquire to see if suitable
catapult-making materials were readily available on
this construction site.

I find the police theory plausible in part. It was
quite possibly a prank by kids. However, I believe
they used some kind of device or machinary to launch
the molding -- it wasn't thrown by hand like a spear
or javelin.

--
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| Malcolm Hoar "The more I practice, the luckier I get". |
| Gary Player. |
| http://www.malch.com/ Shpx gur PQN. |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~