Unless I'm carrying elevations, which is almost never, I find it easier to use a plumb bob and peanut prism on foresight. The nice thing about a plumb bob is that it is never out of adjustment.
Bill68, post: 363091, member: 10680 wrote: The nice thing about a plumb bob is that it is never out of adjustment.
I've found it's not the plumb bob that is the issue. Rather the one hanging off the end of the string. I've seen a few "out of adjustment" in my time with consequential results.
I haven't carried a plumb bob for at least 15 years, maybe more. I have one in the truck, but it gets used maybe once a year for oddball measurements. A high-quality prism pole equipped with a 10-minute bubble has replaced the day-to-day functionality of a plumb bob for me.
I have a little 8oz'er in my tool belt, which I use frequently - but hardly ever for it's original purpose. Use as a scratch awl is the most common.
Still carry a plumb bob but had to give up on the gammon reel, they break from lack of use and just get in the way when using to smack or puncture instead of plumb.
I used to work with an guy had been surveying since the late fifties and always carried a plumb bob, p-gun, right angle prism and compass.
The ability to work away from the safety blanket of battery powered equipment is being lost, which is natural, but still a shame.
party chef, post: 363175, member: 98 wrote: p-gun
That's a new one for me. What is it?
Hand level
Plumb Bob's are cool but an fixed object like a rod with point is easier for line of sight and in my opinion more accurate just for the simple reason you can sight the bottom of the rod with cross hairs and not judge line.
What's a p-gun? We have a plumb bob with a gammon reel in our truck, but we only use it occasionally to lay the string across manholes for measure-downs. Should it be Gammon reel, not gammon reel, assuming it was named after a surveyor named Gammon?
Definition of gammon
1 chiefly British : ham
2 chiefly British
a : a side of bacon
b : the lower end of a side of bacon
Origin of gammon
Anglo-French gambon ham, from gambe, jambe leg, from Late Latin gamba ÛÓ more at gambit
I wonder if the term "P-gun" is more colloquial in nature... that's what we call hand levels out here in the Pacific Northwest. I suppose it's akin to a right-angle prism being called an optical wing-ding thing...
The only superior evidence is that which you haven't yet found.
We will probably never know, but, I was wondering if it were short for personal gun (instrument)
The P in p-gun is for preliminary, from when the hand level was used to punch in preliminary roads for logging etc., at least that is how it was explained to me.
As a kid we made a pgun, "aka pea shooter", using a wooden clothes pin with spring by turning it inside out and putting the twisted spring on the outside and one prong on the inside and the other prong on same side as the spring and bind the small end with a rubber band.
How do you stop carrying a plumb bob?
I think there should be a penalty for that. Maybe a blasphemy charge.
No.
Ok, I got it. Send some money to our friendly moderators, of this forum.
🙂
To be honest Nate, other than sticking it some annoying persons eye, .. it doesn't have a lot of use in the office
I liked that story about removing the tip, and "sticking it in the table". Funny.
Don't use my plumb bob much, but it's another tool I can't do without.
I used my plumb bob to flat chain the distance from my newly set monument to a control point. 2.69'
I still carry one out of fear that I may one day run into the man that I got my start with.
Field Dog, post: 363219, member: 9186 wrote: What's a p-gun? We have a plumb bob with a gammon reel in our truck, but we only use it occasionally to lay the string across manholes for measure-downs. Should it be Gammon reel, not gammon reel, assuming it was named after a surveyor named Gammon?
Definition of gammon
1 chiefly British : ham
2 chiefly British
a : a side of bacon
b : the lower end of a side of baconOrigin of gammon
Anglo-French gambon ham, from gambe, jambe leg, from Late Latin gamba ÛÓ more at gambit
I always thought it was because the red and white looks (slightly) like a piece of meat? do you not have gammon in the US? I think that's where the reel is from??