Plumb Bob Poll

Mine remain pristine. Unless I make a mistake and let someone else use it. Happened once. Never again. That person wasn't happy with the butt chewing he got. Tuff Stuff.

SJ

As a student, it was inculcated into my pointed head that there was a thingy called a hammer and to *loody well use it.

Ergo, so I still do.

But just to be mischievous 😉 my PB has some blemishes caused by nail head imprints, mysteriously gathered.

TNAI

PS-

Besides without the dings and scrapes how do others know you're at work ?

I carried a 22 oz. bob for two reasons, stable plumbing on the beach in 15 mph winds and driving everything from tacks to pipes. On swamp jobs I left the hammer in the truck and drove the pins with the bob.

More than once I cut the string while doing it. I stopped carrying it for construction work, as I carried a job bucket with a hammer and 8 oz. bob for the very few times I needed a bob.

Now that I am doing boundary work again, it might be time to put the bob back on the belt.

"A plumb bob is an instrument, not a tool." –Anonymous(?)

Tacks, no nails.

Carry a bob, a prism, and a bush axe. If the bob will not drive it, the axe will.

A tack is about as much as I'll drive with a plumb bob too. Even then I look around to see if my dad's watching, and he's been dead for ten years.

It's not about the appearance of the shiny bob. The dings make them wobble.

Does not! I calibrated my bob every week........

24oz old school bob with a few mysterious dings in it... it was Dads for years before I got a hold of it. Body is brass and cap is a stainless material... Threads match though. I drive in nails in non-rocky ground and tacks into posts for stack sights (xtra backsight). I try to rotate the bob so as to not get 'er off kilter.

I prefer to use a hammer cause it gets the job done quicker, but won’t hesitate to use the bob if it saves some walking.

It also makes a great digging tool in a pinch. I don’t worry much about its appearance.

.

You are not going to get a hub in the ground with a ten ounce hammer and you are sure not going to get a tack in the hub with the twelve pound sledge, unless your fingers are already smashed. My B. K. Elliott plumb bob has a few nicks from tacks. But it was retired years ago.

I have two

One is pristine

The other looks like a teenagers worst pimple nightmare, not a smooth surface left. Has been used to drive tacks, nails, backsite lath.

Rarely use either these days.

Pristine gear belongs in a showcase, not on a surveyors belt or in his rig.

I pound (tap) tacks into lead plugs and beat the hell outta lath when the need arises.

Bobs are not used as much as they were back in the day.

> one of these cats who pounds in nails and Pks with your plumb bob and ding the crap out of it...

'Wut, you're sposed to use it for somethin else?'....:-O!

I've driven everything but rods with my bob and continue to do it daily. It is on my belt and will be till I retire.

It's not the best, but will work in a pinch in 2000 I traded my 12 for a 24 and it will drive bridge spikes in hard dried
clay with no problem. I do try
to rotate it as I use it so it's f'd up all the way around.

Cannot recall the last time I needed to use a plumb bob, for any reason.

Neither...

I have a 16oz I've owned since 1985.

An occasional hub tack is about it.

I don't own one.