Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2016 February 29

= February 29 =

Mallet
I have a use for a small mallet. Whats the smallest I can get?--31.109.183.147 (talk) 00:04, 29 February 2016 (UTC)


 * See Mallet. The smallest (but definitely not the cheapest) that Amazon sell is a dental mallet - slightly larger and much cheaper ones are also available, and other on-line retailers have similar product ranges.  "Jewelers Hammer" is a useful search term. Tevildo (talk) 00:18, 29 February 2016 (UTC)


 * No matter how small the mallet, there could be another one that's half its size. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 02:21, 29 February 2016 (UTC)


 * That would depend on the length of the plank you cut it from. StuRat (talk) 04:33, 29 February 2016 (UTC)
 * The practical limit, then, would come when it can no longer be cut. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 05:28, 29 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Doesn't "Whats the smallest I can get?" refer to the smallest one that's commercially available? --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  09:17, 29 February 2016 (UTC)
 * There are people who make bespoke tools, so the smallest one you can buy is determined by the size you want it to be. You can have miniature tools made for dolls houses if you want. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.150.174.93 (talk) 09:31, 29 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Well, this is a bit more nuanced than that. The smallest possible "mallet" would (I'm sure) be some nanotechnological wonder made from a few dozen atoms.   But our OP clearly needs this for some purpose - so we need a WORKING mallet...and that imposes some restrictions I think.


 * Let's think about the consequences of making a tiny mallet. I own a laser cutter, I can machine bits of wood to a precision of  1/30th of a millimeter and a 1/10th millimeter 'kerf'.  I could certainly manufacture a mallet with a head that's (say) a 3mm wooden cube with (let's say) a 1x1x10mm cuboid handle pushed through the middle of it.  But at this point, the resulting tool would be too small to comfortably hold - and it would be exceedingly lightweight.  The objective of a mallet (or hammer of any kind) is to magnify the forces you can exert with your hands by turning a long-duration low-force swing into a short-duration high-force impact.


 * So the weight of the head and the length of the shaft become important issues for the mechanical advantage that the tool provides. If the mechanical advantage is less than ~1, then it's not really a functional mallet anymore.


 * Note particularly, that if the mallet is merely a scale model of a 'traditional' sized tool - when you halve the linear dimensions, you reduce the mass of the head by a factor of 8. So going from a 10cm head to my 3mm laser-cut mallet head reduces the mass by a factor of 37,000!  So the impulsive force delivered by my micro-mallet is TINY...far, far less than you could get by pushing on something with your finger.


 * You can kinda fix that by not making a traditional wooden mallet - and going with denser materials. Of course at that point, what you have is a "hammer" and not a "mallet" - but still there comes a point where even the densest available metals don't give you enough heft for the tool to have any mechanical advantage.


 * So at some point, while I'm quite sure you could make a nano-technology mallet with just a few dozen atoms and claim the record for the "smallest possible" - I'm also rather sure that it would be functionally useless.  So the quest really boils down to asking what the smallest functionally useful "hammer" is...and I'd bet that a watchmaker's mallet would be it.


 * Of course, your objective might be to limit the amount of force you can exert. That would kinda be the opposite of what a mallet traditionally does - but I'm sure there is a better way to do that with some different kind of tool.


 * SteveBaker (talk) 15:21, 29 February 2016 (UTC)


 * A selection of mini hammers actually available on-line includes a tiny 2 oz. Toolmaker's Mallet and a 1.5 oz. hammer for model railroading, ship modeling, dollhouse miniatures, etc. AllBestFaith (talk) 15:42, 29 February 2016 (UTC)
 * I don't think Barbie uses tools. She's too busy getting dressed. KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( もしもし！ ) 16:42, 29 February 2016 (UTC)


 * On the other hand, if the largest Mallet is of interest, that would probably be one of these. --69.159.61.172 (talk) 19:05, 29 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Here's a tiny hammer you can't buy on eBay, but it does exist! --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 19:06, 29 February 2016 (UTC)

OP here. Well sorry I havent been back (busy). What I need is a small wooden mallet with a striking surface about 1.5 in * 1.5 in and a couple oz in weight for best effect I think. Where can I get one?--31.109.183.147 (talk) 01:07, 1 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Such mallets are widely available - this is Amazon's offering, this and this are products from other retailers. Tevildo (talk) 09:23, 1 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Hey I only want to ripen my partners plums, not pummel them into mush!--31.109.183.147 (talk) 16:58, 1 March 2016 (UTC)
 * In that case, see CBT and Paddle (spanking). I believe a table tennis bat may usefully be employed in such applications. Tevildo (talk) 19:04, 1 March 2016 (UTC)


 * Reflex hammers are fairly small. LongHairedFop (talk) 22:43, 1 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Still not quite right. Something like the paddle but with a bit of weight at the end would be ok. I need it to bounce off the plums a bit to transfer the correct momentum. TT bats are far too large to fit into the available space.--31.109.183.147 (talk) 01:08, 2 March 2016 (UTC)