I'm amazed that any crew would go to the field without at least a 25 ft retracting tape.
So did you pinch both ends, or just the bottom?
It would probably be possible to distinguish between hand-pinched pipe and pipe cut with a big shear in the junkyard. The hand-pinched pipe would have a rough edge on at least part of the break.
From the posts here, it looks as though the source of pinch pipe varied from one place to another.
Lots of pinch pipe around the Twin Cities. Mostly 1/2" I.D. but some 3/4" and 3/8" I.D. Every one I've found has had a clean smooth cut on the pinched end, indicating it was cut with a shear--unless of course it was too rusty to tell. They seem to have gone out of use about 1960.
My rule of thumb is that a pinch pipe has to have been set by a surveyor, although of it might possibly have been disturbed later. I'm always happy to find them for that reason.
A homeowner or farmer can easily get hold of an ordinary scrap of water or gas pipe, and drive it in the ground according to his own conception of where a property corner ought to be. And now and then they do that.
But a pinch pipe is not good for anything except being driven in the ground, and pinch pipes are not found in hardware stores, or in scrap discarded by plumbers. So it would be very unlikely that a non-surveyor could lay his hands on one.
I know of zero projects where the boundary monuments were sized for drainage, water supply or the conveyance of any liquid. The outer diameter can be determined with reliability in most cases. Inner diameter requires significant effort if the pipe or post has any age to it. As I've said before, caps go over pipes and posts and our statute is worded to make OD the pertinent dimension.
Whatever you pick, make sure you express it in enough detail to be followed with certainty. If we start seeing significant numbers of plumbers seeking survey licensure I may change my mind. Probably not.?ÿ
...So did you pinch both ends, or just the bottom?
In the process both ends got "cut, mangled and smashed"..except for the two end pieces.?ÿ We left those a bit longer, closer to 24" rather than the usual 16" to 18".?ÿ ?ÿAnd this may sound funny, but it's true: the PC reserved those end pieces for special corners like section or 1/4?ÿ corners.?ÿ The pinched ones were strictly for property corners at that outfit.?ÿ
I was really happy when I went to another company and found out they used rebar for corners...already cut to length!?ÿ?ÿThat was like writing home for $5 and getting $10.?ÿ 😉
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@thebionicman I believe it is how you buy the pipe, not necessarily the purpose.?ÿ Try walking into Ace Hardware and ordering steel pipe by the outside diameter.?ÿ They will certainly not mistake you for a plumber....
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I got tired of thinking about this so I started taking a photo of found monuments.?ÿ If anyone questions my map notation I will be happy to supply and you can make your own determination
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our statute is worded to make OD the pertinent dimension.
I am almost amazed that this was important enough to be added into the statute
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@jph the statute doesn't specify OD, but it states "least dimension". The ID is immaterial.?ÿ
Another issue with ID is how to measure it with a cap riveted on. It makes sense to call out what you can observe..
I am aware of no such specificity in Oregon, Washington, or Oklahoma statute. The common practice in Oregon and Washington, at least the western parts, is nominal inside diameter. The practice in OK is iron pipes are too expensive to use as monuments. But when in Idaho, do as the Idahoans do.
I've also worked in British Columbia, but there they have very specific rules about what can be used as monuments, they are all things that have no other common purpose and are therefor unique, and those rules have been in place for long enough that you just never find oddball scraps of iron used as monuments. You find a Type 1 monument or a Type 2 monument, etc.?ÿ ?ÿ
bailing wire
I see a lot of people using that spelling, and wonder why.?ÿ You can't bail a boat out with it and it's usually too thin to make a proper bail on a bucket.
So I think most times it refers to baling wire, stuff similar to what was once used to tie bales of hay.
Excellent comments, Bill.?ÿ That one makes me grit my teeth as well.
Baling wire is still in common use for square bales.?ÿ But, most hay is now the big round bales with plastic twine or wrap.?ÿ Saw a large square baler recently that makes 3'x3'x8' bales with a trailing wrapping device to wrap them completely in plastic before they hit the ground.
Baling wire is still in common use for square bales.?ÿ
I didn't know that, as I've never actually seen bales with wire.
Back when I helped put in hay in the 60's and 70's we hired a neighbor to bring his baler (small square) that used fiber twine. Then he switched to small round bales with twine.
When I'm in farm country nowadays I see mostly plastic twine, which seems ecologically unfortunate.
A plastic surveyors cap that will fit over 1/2" rebar will go inside a 3/4" pipe. We usually set 5/8 rebar and cap but sometimes 3/4 pipe and cap. Inside diameter for pipes around here???
This ??specific monument description? is quite interesting. I??ve seen many pinch top pipes. Many rebar, and many pipes. Many R/R spikes. I??ve seen one R/R spike, with a cross on it, and a section number in each of the 4 quadrants.?ÿ
I??ve ve seen gun barrels, axles, mounds of stone, and conduit. I??ve seen angle irons, jack stems, water pipe, X on rock, but the worst was a dead cow carcass sitting where I needed to find or set a corner. And, an opossum inside it!
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I have a supply on hand of baling wire at all times.?ÿ The current stash came from about 60 little square bales I purchased at an auction two years ago when I was needing to feed in a small lot situation where one big bale would seem to last forever and probably have half go to waste.
I have a small twine square baler in a shed that was purchased new by my dad about 1962 and the hay rake that was purchased at the same time.?ÿ The baler hasn't been out of the shed in over 30 years but I'd hate to guess the total number of bales it made in the first almost 30 years.?ÿ My dad died 30 years and 3 days ago and he's the one who parked it in the shed.?ÿ I had a small wire square baler at the time as I was primarily baling hay and straw to sell while feeding large round bales or some of Dad's small bales.
@holy-cow Nope, bailing wire degrades fast when used to attach tags to rebar, much better is to Monel wire which lasts decades+.?ÿ Sorry to be repetitive about this matter.
We don't see tags used around here as caps are the standard.?ÿ I would not recommend baling wire for that application as it gets quite brittle when it rusts.?ÿ I would probably go with electric fence wire of the smallest gauge as that stuff seems to last forever, so long as you don't try to twist it too tightly.
Its ridiculous that experienced surveyors still do this, surely they have encountered situations where this causes uncertainty at least a few times in their career.?ÿ
In this case the helpful thing to do would be to describe it as a pinched top, mushroom top, and add as much additional identifying information as possible. You never know when another pipe will appear next to the one you found. A lot can happen in 100 years.