Buying a new plumb bob?

18 oz

My one and only personal plumb bob since 1970 is a 14 oz. When I buy them for the crew I get 16 oz. I can't imagine using a heavier one for day in and day out use.

I go with the 16 oz one, with non brass top, or cap on top. Balance is just about right, to tap a nail in. And, not too heavy to carry for 36 miles!

N

16 ounce, although I came across a 24 ounce one at a flea market. I guess I was never in enough wind to need anything heavier than the olde 16 ounce.

12 oz Brass
Or 14 but too big in my opinion.

there is also a knack to getting a plum bob to hang vertical in a breeze.
A certain oscillation is required that has amazing effects. Plucking string in appropriate area.
Like a calmative to a string it will take the wavering out of a hanging bob very well.

Stiff as in hard breezes are another thing but that means standing in right shielding position.

Not sure why you would want to burden yourself with a heavy weight that just pulls the jocks off and is uncomfortable to wear.

Only good thing I could see it makes more donging power for tacks, nails etc, but that equates also to more easily made blackened fingers and burning ears of passer-byes.

16 oz for me. It's been many years since I've actually carried one, though; on the rare occasions on which I've needed one in the last couple of decades, having it in the truck has been good enough.

> What's your vote for a useful, yet, comfortable bob weight?
Back in the day when I used one regularly it was a 16oz'er. Nowadays I carry an 8 oz'er in the tool belt. I rarely use it, and when I do it's a little sub-optimum. But it does work OK. And it's not too much of a load to pack around.

16 oz.

Make sure it has been properly calibrated before purchasing.

Scott Is Exposed To Much More Wind Than Us.

Since you do not spend as much time surveying on the ground as most, I would say 24 ounces.

I bought a 12 oz. bob for surveying classes in college and have carried one on my belt every day in the field since. Gammon reel was added about 20 years ago. Except for extreme conditions you do not need the extra weight to keep it steady. I have a second 12 oz. with gammon in my instrument case with a mini prism. I have not used either in years. Last fall the surveyor I help out as I-man broke his bob string so I gave him mine. Mine really only get used now for times I set up a bunch of tripods for traverse and I use some tribrachs without optical plummets. I still have two tripods with plumb bob hooks. I also have an optical plummet tribrach adaptor but I prefer the plumb bob.

Paul in PA

Making a new plumb bob?

Dave, you should be thinking about using that new machine to make a plumb Bob.

I prefer this one...

16 oz is what I have

I used to carry one regularly on my tool belt. 16 ounce one with gammon reel. I used it with a long shank screwdriver holding one end of a steel roll-up tape with me and a plumb bob on the other end doing rough solo work. I started using it less with my red laser EDM, and hardly at all with my GPS equipment.

The trouble I had was when walking through the woods in Northeast Mississippi. We have a lot of thick underbrush with blackberry and greenbriar vines with lots of thorns. There are also kudzu and honeysuckle vines in the non-thorn vine families. While plowing my way through the underbrush, the vines usually relieve me of tool belt items. My hammer, the end of a new roll of flagging, and my plumb bob. I have gone back many times to gather up 49 yards of flagging, and also found flagged nails and pin flags hanging on thorny vines, in addition to my radio. The gammon reel was easy to spot, but my old blue handled hammer was not unless I remembered to tie orange flagging around the handle.

Ebay has these items for sale most of the times listed as "antique" surveying equipment. I bought a good, serviceable Post 16 ounce plumb bob last year with original leather sheath to replace my two Leitz ones I had for over 30 years that I lost within 4 months of each other. :pissed:

I think that is why these items are sometimes referred to as "consumables!"o.O

Make sure you keep it oiled with the proper plumb bob oil as well. It's useless to have it calibrated if it isn't oiled. 😉

Dale Yawn
Savannah, Ga.

plumb bob or plumbob?

Which is it? My I-pad autocorrect says two words.

This is like the benchmark / bench mark issue; does it depend on the context?

I've got two. For day to day it's definitely the 16 ounce. On sites with walls and columns I have a 32 ounce with extended gammon reel. I also carried a roll of orange nylon string and extra cap. Very handy transferring control floor to floor..

Still have (use) my trusty 24 oz. BOB that I bought back in 68 or 69.

There are several "others" in the truck, ranging from ~8 or 10 oz. to 32 oz.

Standard "issue" with the USFS back in the 60s-70s, was 16 oz.

Loyal

Plumb Bob Hook

> Mine really only get used now for times I set up a bunch of tripods for traverse and I use some tribrachs without optical plummets. I still have two tripods with plumb bob hooks. I also have an optical plummet tribrach adaptor but I prefer the plumb bob.
>
> Paul in PA

Is this a plumb bob hook inside the tripod tightening knob? Can those be purchased and retrofitted?

Plumb Bob Hook

> Can those be purchased and retrofitted?

Just bend a piece of stiff wire to suit, drill an appropriately-sized hole through the center of the clamping screw, and do your own retrofit.