I seem to remember a Jerry Clower skit where they took a monkey hunting. One of the characters said "there ain't but one thing he hates worse than a coon. That's a lyin coon dog". I believe that was said right after the monkey dispatched the coon dog that signaled a coon where there wasn't one.
The old county surveyor was out surveying before the schonstedt days and had his crew searching for the corner. He didn't get around as good as he used to, so the crew searched as he observed. After a while he called off the search. He went to leave and as he took his first step, he fell flat on his face and tore the leg of his pants. He had stood right beside the rod and it was up just enough that his pants leg went over it. True story.
Me. "What's the difference?"
T.C. Carroll "It's the difference between right and wrong!"
> The old county surveyor was out surveying before the schonstedt days and had his crew searching for the corner. He didn't get around as good as he used to, so the crew searched as he observed. After a while he called off the search. He went to leave and as he took his first step, he fell flat on his face and tore the leg of his pants. He had stood right beside the rod and it was up just enough that his pants leg went over it. True story.
:gammon:
A very happy accident, I am sure!
Chinese Steel rebar are harder, than the American old ones. More brittle. More carbon, According to my concrete guy, the harder the rebar, then the stronger the concrete.
N
I've had the same experience, sometimes it is screaming and then pauses over the iron.
Around fences I use my old dip needle.Before my metal detector,the dip needle is what I used.
How can I be a Metal Locator Jedi Master too?
“(carefully around the junction boxes though)”
And Cable boxes. May God help your soul if you cut some one addicted to soap operas cable on a Friday afternoon. You will be accosted. :-O
For some reason, some other posts have touched on it, some irons just don't ring up. Some of them have been mine and haven't been in the ground that long. It has nothing to do with the locator, the batteries or the way somebody is using it. I've never touched a magnet to it but it wouldn't surprise me if that didn't work. From my experience these irons that don't ring up are probably less than 1% of the ones I find. They usually do ring up, just very weak.
> > Rebar is more of a mild steel than iron.
>
> Steel is basically iron and carbon. The carbon content runs from a very small fraction of a percent to about 1.5 percent. Over 2 percent or so and you've got cast iron, not steel.
>
> More exotic alloying elements like chromium, vanadium, nickel, molybdenum can also be used, but again are present in only small amounts. So calling mild steel, which is well over 90% iron, "not iron" doesn't really make sense.
>
> Those small percentages of alloying elements can have a big effect on magnetic properties, though. Most stainless, which is mostly iron, carbon and nickel, is non-magnetic. Since rebar is often made from scrap steel, that may come into play with regard to its magnetic signature.
A magnetic locator (which is what most surveyors use to find boundary bars) only reacts to changes in the earth's magnetic field caused by those iron objects within its sphere of sensitivity. If the iron object just happens to be planted in an area where there was already something existing that had the opposite affect on the earth's magnetic field at that point, introducing the iron bar to the area has the effect of nulling out the effect of both objects. In that case the magnetic locator will have trouble finding anything there because there is very little effect on the earth's magnetic field at that point beyond the reference point of calibration of the instrument.
A metal detector on the other hand would have no problem finding the bar. A metal detector sends a signal into the ground and then waits to hear what has been reflected back. Metal objects in the ground reflect the greatest amount of signal back, so that is what it measures and responds to it.
I carry a 'pin-pointer'. They are used by folks that dig for coins and other things less important than monuments. It will not 'sing' unless it's within an inch or so of the object. Handy near bollards and fences...