This is an eBay link. They seem to be some sort of brass chaining pin, or the like. I've never seen or used them before.?ÿ
It'd be nice if I could get more information from someone who knoweth...
Thanks, Nate
This is an eBay link. They seem to be some sort of brass chaining pin, or the like. I've never seen or used them before.?ÿ
It'd be nice if I could get more information from someone who knoweth...
Thanks, Nate
They are "roof spads" used in underground surveying. I have a small box of them out in the truck. They are only about 1?« inches long, and are designed to be "pounded" into the roof (ceiling) of an adit/tunnel, and then you hang a plumb bob from them. Setting an instrument up UNDER?ÿone of them is a little different than setting up OVER a point. I haven't used one if nearly 40 years ago (don't care much for underground work).
Loyal
"Spads are flat spikes which are hammered into a wooden plug anchored in a hole drilled into the mine ceiling from which is threaded a plumbline. Alternately, they can be hammered directly into the rock or a small crack in the rock face. Often times used for hanging equipment, lighting, mine safety items.
A handy tool in mine surveying for marking permanent underground stations
or suspending survey equipment."?ÿ
http://www.lmine.com/survey-spads-c-11_112/spads-stainless-steel-100pk-p-3908.html
cool!
?ÿ
PS: Loyal types faster
I also have a box..... unused for 20 years.
spads are used in tunnel and mining surveys, where the ground is constantly being torn up, covered in goo, or has tracks being set on them.
The practice, as instructed, was to set a spad in a ceiling crack, and hang a plumbob from it, and set the dimple at the top on the instrument (bet you never even noticed it) directly under the plumbob.
I would always just hang the plumbob to the ground, and set a shiny new dime at the point, and set up over the dime...... but then again, I was never much of a mine surveyor.
measure ups are negative, and from the flat lowest part on the spad.
I have used spads when I did the survey of the Hanging Lakes Tunnels through Glenwood Canyon - I-70- Colorado in 1989. For those of us dry ground surveyors who had to convert to the unique "pleasantries" of underground surveying, the word "spads" invokes an image that all surveying in tunnels is done "upside down", also, in knee deep water, pitch black darkness, extreme cold wind, muck, where radios don't work (underground) and you can't talk to the guy standing next to you because of the loud noise, mostly caused by miners and engineers running around screaming obscenities and wanting to blow things up all over the place.?ÿ
?ÿ
brand new ones for 40 bucks. Bet those could be used in place of bench ties....
?ÿ
http://www.lmine.com/survey-spads-c-11_112/spads-stainless-steel-100pk-p-3908.html
I still use spads.?ÿ Have worked underground off and on for 20 years.?ÿ I have a client that is opening a new mine northwest of Alma, CO this spring.?ÿ I am cheap, so don't spend extra for stainless steel spads.?ÿ This is a hard rock mine so I look for cracks or holes in the back (what miners call the "ceiling") and pound in a wooden wedge.?ÿ The spad is tapped into the wedge.?ÿ Also, the wooden wedges are easier to find than a spad in a rock crack as the vent bag and utility lines are hung from the back.
The back is 10 to 12 feet above the sill (what miners call the floor) so I use a laser plummet to set up below the spad.?ÿ If I used a plumb bob I'd have to haul a ladder around.?ÿ For those interested in other hard rock mining terms: adit is a horizontal entry into a mine with one opening to the surface (a tunnel is open at both ends); drift is a horizontal opening driven along a vein; crosscut is a horizontal opening driven across the vein or ore body; rib is the adit or drift wall; and face/breast is the end, heading or working face of an adit, drift or crosscut.
The mine is the Detroit City Mine and here are two articles describing the mining operation.?ÿ They are mining for crystal specimens of rhodochrosite.?ÿ The earlier mining done below this mine was at the Sweet Home Mine, a world-class locale for rhodochrosite mineral specimens (Google Sweet Home and rhodochrosite).?ÿ For example here is a photo of a single crystal of rhodochrosite weighing 5-1/2 lbs., Collector's Edge Minerals
Detroit City: Another Chapter in the story of Sweet Home Rhodochrosite!
The second link has a couple of photos of my GPS and (old-timer) traverse gear.
And here is a panorama view of Loveland Mtn. from the portal (looking WNW).
I took a Mine Surveying class last year at Great Basin College. It was a great learning experience. I would love to do some underground mining, just have never had the opportunity or known of a firm that does it. Please keep us updated on this project and upload lots of pics!?ÿ?ÿ
I use spads occasionally in the Salt Mine when I need to put a point in rock, but it is faster to use a Hilti nail gun and 90 degree clips in salt.
