My plum bob was scarred so much from driving tacks with it that you would not have known it was shiny brass when it was given to me.?ÿ When I started running the gun it was an optical K & E without an optical plummet.?ÿ It became a habit to always carry in on my belt, part of the dressing for work routine.?ÿ Shortly after the Topcon guns became popular I switched jobs and everybody laughed at me when I broke out my Bob to set up.?ÿ Good ole Mr. Bob was retired at that point and took 16 ounces off of my belt.?ÿ LOL!?ÿ
@dewam?ÿ
"Now do you have a good procedure to re-adjust it once you install a new tip?"
Yes, I peg it afterwards by pointing it at the center of the earth.
@thebionicman - I used to horse around and shoot it right at the guts of co-workers and then stop it right before it hit them. I thought it was pretty funny. I was the only one who did. Then one time when I'd just stopped it inches from a guy's belly, the bob hung still for a hot second in the air and right when it was supposed to swing back to me... >snap< ...the frayed string broke and the bob fell straight down to the guy's feet. Before it hit the ground I had pivoted and started running but he tackled me before I got 3 steps and boxed my ears. So I stopped doing that. Good times.
I've used mine to float my peanut a few times.
?ÿ
... now THAT doesn't sound right
@dewam?ÿ
"Now do you have a good procedure to re-adjust it once you install a new tip?"
Yes, I peg it afterwards by pointing it at the center of the earth.
That's the first step, but you need to spin it and verify it still points to the same spot.
Aye, me lad, it's been many a year since the last time my ears were properly boxed.
One more thing to put on my list of things to be thankful come Thanksgiving Day.
Plumb bobs point in the direction of local gravity if the brass is perfectly distributed and it perfectly formed.
When I started we were not allowed to leave the office without a plumb bob. And gammon reels were for sissies. I can still tie the slip knot for hanging below the K&E if I don't think about it.?ÿ
As a greenhorn apprentice, my crew chief did me a big favor by taking me to the survey supply store to get my brand new plumb bob and gammon reel calibrated.
The gentleman that helped me smiled and said he'd get right on it and that it would only take a few minutes. Once finished, he brought it back out to me. I asked him how much I owed, and he said that since it was my first time, there would be no fee. I felt it was my lucky day!
Over the years, I extended that generosity to several of my brand new apprentices. It never got old.?ÿ
Now, it seems if anyone has a plumb bob, it is used for popping spray-paint cans more than anything else.
And gammon reels were for sissies.
As a young lad straight out of school, my first party chief made it a point to harass me into abandoning gammon reels after I killed a few when they would get hung up.?ÿ To his credit, wrapping the string around bob worked just as well and it never got hung up in the brush our truck door.
Now my well used fried hangs on the rod adjustment jig next to my desk.?ÿ And yes, it is well dimpled from setting tacks.
I picked the worst time to also switch to an iPhone. Now I??m learning to a new field software, data collector, robot, gps and cell phone all in the same month. Tried the iPhone because I was having multiple issues with my oneplus 8 pro android phone and my fianc?? and her family all have iPhones so it??s convenient in some ways. 12 years using Android makes it a hard switch though. I should have tried Samsung instead.?ÿ
I too switched to iphone...the alarms and the sounds kill me...What do you mean I cannot set a different volume for each alarm? Am I a cave man??ÿ And on and on, the little things I miss from Android.?ÿ
I haven??t used a plumb bob in 20 years, and my instrument doesn??t have an optical telescope so I have no use for one
That is one thing I would really have trouble getting used to on the SX12. Even though I am always using it robotic. That said I really wished I had the camera on my s5 yesterday when it didn't want to find me while searching.?ÿ
@dmyhill?ÿ
My sim card is back in the Android. Some of the issues I was having persisted with the iphone and I couldn't send pictures or receive texts (Google chat) messages from my project manager yesterday, which is probably the most important thing I need, so I switched back over. I'm still in the 30 day return period for the iphone. They both have their strong points like any other equipment, but I was missing all the things I could normally do just like you say.?ÿ
Never used it for anything other than it's intended use.?ÿ When i venture into the field (too rare a phenomenon), it is on my tool belt.?ÿ Call me old school I do not care, there is no more reliable tool available to a surveyor than a plumb bob.
Mine probably doesnt work anymore. Havent changed its batteries in years
Doesn't anyone plumb lath backsights anymore??ÿ
Doesn't anyone tie out monuments before digging deeper anymore??ÿ
So many other every day uses.?ÿ
If I caught a coworker using a plumb bob to pound nails I would impound their bob and tie a string on the end of a claw hammer and have them carry it.?ÿ
I remember once when we played a trick on the instrument person. While they were sighting on the string we slowly used another string to pull the bob side ways. After a few retakes on the I bubble the I man gave us the plumb up sign on the string. We had some fun with that. You want us to do what??ÿ
Many years ago I was hired by an attorney who was handling a property line dispute. The neighbor had paid for a survey which "our" client disagreed with. My survey agreed with the other surveyor. Over the next few months a boundary line adjustment was negotiated, requiring several site visits with attorneys present to finalized the geometry that was agreed to by both neighbors. The day came to set the two new corners for the adjusted boundary. I borrowed a T-16 from a friend and hired a LSIT I worked with.
Both new monuments were within 50' of the instrument, so I figured we would chain them in. However, there were some large landscape boulders on line, so we had to chain about 4' off the ground to clear them. Everyone involved were standing on the sidewalk watching us. I turned the first angle, then handed the head of the chain to the LSIT and told him that his add was .48. He just looked at me and asked "what does that mean?" I showed him the incremented end of the tape and said "You will hold your plumb bob here and I will hold the correct foot at the instrument, then I will give you line." "Okay." We pulled the tape level and I started to put him on line, then saw the plumb bob swinging wildly about an inch below the tape. Our audience was getting restless.
I walked to him and quietly asked "what are you doing?" "Holding the plumb bob at .48 like you told me to." He sure was. He had wrapped the string around the tape several times at .48, which didn't allow the bob to travel from the tape height to the ground, where we needed to set the monument. With my back to the crowd, I quickly showed him how to let the bob descend to the ground while maintaining the add of .48. We eventually got the pipe in, but I had to whack it around a bit to actually fit the line and distance well. The second one went much smoother.
The guy was only maybe 5 years younger than me and had spent a few years in the field, but it was a very poor assumption on my part that he had actually used a plumb bob for anything or had ever used a chain/tape to set anything, regardless of being an LSIT who went on to get his PLS.
@bad?ÿ
You could have fun with that at any place that sells batteries.?ÿ "Uh, sir, can you help me??ÿ The batteries in my plumb bob died and I need new ones now.?ÿ Where do you keep them??ÿ Are these the only batteries you keep in stock?"
Tangential to topic, the superlative cabinet maker Frank Klausz has a very cool plumb bob collection in his shop.?ÿ See minute 9:00.