plumb bob

The plumb bob remains the best way to help center over the tall survey monument.
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  • Land Surveyor

    On short traverse legs I still like to see some string with a plumb bob shot. I wonder how many remember hold to tie the slip knot when hanging a bob from an instrument instead of using a gammon reel. My old trusty plumb bob (18 oz.) has many a ding on it from driving stake tacks in hubs with it.

  • Land Surveyor

    @Keith, that was to long ago I don't remember what I did or did not remember to do, but I can say that I still use a plumb bob occasionally.  Most recently I used one as a string line over the rim of a manhole to measure depth between the rim and invert / flowline of the pipes below us using a graduated leveling rod.  So, in my opinion, the plumb bob has survived to this day through the millennia as a useful simple tool for the surveyors toolbelt.  Do the universities still offer plumb-bob 101 as a prerequisite for chain-and-compass 202? :)

  • To comment on Scott's reply, did you remember to go half the distance of what you were out on your bubble for every leg adjustment. This always works for points that are well above or below the feet of your tripod. What's a plumbbob.....aren't those obsolete???? Normally that would be a sarcastic comment, but I have been asked that many times by up and coming surveyors.

  • It pleases me to know that the art and science of surveying includes people of many places and languages.  It has been a long time since I traveled the world but I continue to believe that diversity is a good thing.  Akram, I hope you will find a way to express what you wanted to say.

  • hi phill

    how r u hope you will be fine,i follow yours thinking about plumbob soon, i will write soon on such basic tools due language problem i cannot complete my my note

  • Seeking Employment

     I could have not agree more , I still use this conventional way of centring my target tribach, optical centring must be check from time to time for its reliability, the defect can affect the entire work. 

  • Land Surveyor

    I tried using the optical plummet on the tribrach to center over a point on a steep hillside that I could only occupy from about two feet above.  I tried, I tried again, I tried again and again and finally had made it to my wits end.  There has to be a way; there is always a way, I was thinking.  What am I doing wrong?  I gave up on the optical plummet and reached into my tool pouch which already contained - you guessed it - a plumb bob.  I repeated the exercise using the plumb bob and achieved in 3 minutes what I just wasted in 20 minutes of frustration.  I was plumb over the point.  It must have been my Grandfather, a Mason, who was guiding me at the time.

  • The plumb bob has practical and symbolic importance to me in a variety of ways.  As a land surveyor it has been a basic hand tool.  As a Mason it is one of my working tools and a method of measuring my life now as well as preparing me for my work in the Kingdom.  As a man of faith I know that God will raise a plumb line as one final test by which all will be measured.

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