Right handed or left handed, don't matter.
Drop the first 5ft and look at how it falls off and go from there....
It gets old, especially with a 300 footer or a timber chain (3 chain length in varas).
When I bought my own equipment I chose to put my chains on a reel.
Learned on a 300' cut chain, I absolutely hated that chain no quicker way to bust a distance, I pretty much only used it for stationing in even stations down the center line. My boss at the time didn't believe in chain reels or linker rods if it couldn't be done with a T2, Na2, chain and tension handels and a Philly rod we didn't do it.
Peter Ehlert, post: 337824, member: 60 wrote: did you watch the video?
it's not easy.dad was a butcher, he had to throw the band saw blades, and flake them too. I never learned, but dad made it look easy...
Peter, we're talking one-handed, right? I learned to throw a chain 40 years ago, but never even tried one-handed.
I've missed out on that experience. But from working with microphone cords, I can say that the knots happen when the end goes through the middle of the coil. If you get it started unwinding correctly, you shouldn't have any knots regardless of how it was wound.
I was taught to throw a 100' highway chain when I was 12. I'm 38. It used to be a competition to see who could do it up faster. We have thrown the 200' and if done in 10' loops, can be thrown twice.
About once a year, I get it out and do it. As far as I know, it's the only time the chain comes out anymore. My dad and I for sure can, and I think the other RPLS here can, but, past that, the other guys don't even know what it is. We just don't use them much anymore other than some small layout because it's faster and those chains are on reels and left in a specific spot in the office and not to be touched.
I wonder who the first person was to throw a chain. Who invented it?
Tom Adams, post: 337888, member: 7285 wrote: Peter, we're talking one-handed, right? I learned to throw a chain 40 years ago, but never even tried one-handed.
oops, I missed "one-handed"... in concept, I imagine it can be done. but I am way to old to learn or even try.
I learned (two handed) after I had been surveying for maybe 10 years.
I went to work as a PC in a remote shop, very low dollar operation... they did not Own any reels at all, never had. I was amazed! I had heard of it, read of it, but thought it was from the Dark Ages.
The PLS owner, Fred, just smiled. He took me outside and patiently taught me how... he then gave me an old 200 foot babbitt chain to take home for the weekend and practice. The following Monday I could do it, was able to show Fred, then he allowed me to begin my first work day for him. Never Forget.
Lamon Miller, post: 337919, member: 553 wrote: I wonder who the first person was to throw a chain. Who invented it?
no idea but I bet he was a sailor. it is quite similar to "properly" stowing and flaking lines on a sail boat. the last thing you need in an Oh Sh+*! moment is a snarled line
When I was teaching elementary surveying and the methods used to obtain linear measurements, I would bring out a 100' steel "chain" and walk around the classroom laying it out. I would demonstrate how to use a plumbob and how to hold the chain at the ends using the leather strap and on the chain using a certain hand position. I would talk about chaining pins and keeping up with hundreds of feet measurements, and then go over corrections for temperature, and the methods used for data gathering measurements versus layout measurements. When I finished the lecture, I would "stack fives," tie off one end, make a figure eight, and then throw the chain into a circle to finish tying it up. All to wide-eyed amazement.
Professor Roffie Burt taught us how to do that back in the mid-seventies at Mississippi State University in Surveying class. We were also graded on applying the proper amount of tension based on practice and our rememberance of how much the proper tension "feels."
We actually used a chain in my first job post graduation in 1980. Our firm upgraded to an electronic EDM when we had to chain across the Tenn-Tom waterway when it was under construction. I also used a Tandy Radio Shack model 1 computer with COGO software being loaded from a cassette player each time we turned the computer on.
Now I have three computers dedicated to surveying work, a GPS / GNSS base-rover system with field controller and an electronic total station.
If you snooze, you lose.
I will be 60 this spring, and I ain't got time to slow down. But my knees beg for mercy, and I cannot last all day in the field anymore. Thank goodness I can spend about half my time in the office recuperating from a few days in the field.
Time marches on, and waits for no man.
I, too, learned how to "throw" a bandsaw blade. I now have a Woodmizer sawmill, and throwing one of those blades is tricky!
Been a really long time!
I skimmed through here but can't see an answer to my dilemma.
My question is why throw a chain?
I grew up on what we called a 'chain', but was a 1/12 or 1/16 inch wide steel band of varying lengths to 600'.
And you definitely wouldn't throw a 600' 1/16" steel band, unless you wanted quick marching orders.
I was on one end, my chainman on the other and we'd leapfrog each other until we reached end of line.
No need to throw it anywhere, as we needed to hang on to each end to measure.
So why throw?
Only time I could see a use would have been when we had to measure straight across a huge hole, open cut mine. (Grassy Scheelite)
Got me baffled.
Different use for the term 'throw'.
I understand when you say to throw a chain across a body of water or other obstacle. We would gather enough loops to reach the other side and let it sail across with a weight on the end or into the waiting arms of the head chainman.
This reference to throwing a chain is to gather the chain into a 5ft or 2vara or 2meter overlapping loops and throw (flop & twist) the chain into a circle for storage.
:beer:
ditto. In later years everyone had reels to roll it up in. "Throwing" the chain is how you roll it up in the absence of a reel.
Ah. The penny drops.
I can now see the relevance of a bandsaw mentioned. (definitely a knack to them) so appreciate there'd be a real need in pre reel days.
Ours come on canvas "reels" but we'd transfer to metal ones.
Makes perfect sense now.
Re river crossings, we'd throw (hurl) a light rope across and drag end of chain on that.
Thanks for replies.
