Do you dowse?
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Joined: Feb 2003
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From: Long Beach, Ms.
Do you dowse?
Today I was at the horse ranch where I do handyman work on occasion. We were building a new training ring and needed to auger some post holes where we knew there was a water line and a buried power line. Using a pair of two foot long pieces of #4 copper ground wire we easily located the path of the underground lines. Have you ever used, or seen someone using, a set of dowsing rods?
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From: The Great North~West!
Yes, I use them regularly!!
I work on a Wind Farm and whenever we have to dig up our collection cables or fiber optics for repair, I can "witch" the trench in about five minutes. It takes the boys about 20 to find it with their $20,000.00 machine!!! And my witching is way more accurate than theirs!!!
I work on a Wind Farm and whenever we have to dig up our collection cables or fiber optics for repair, I can "witch" the trench in about five minutes. It takes the boys about 20 to find it with their $20,000.00 machine!!! And my witching is way more accurate than theirs!!!
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Joined: Sep 2006
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it not crazy, its the magnetic field that allines the metel rods when they cross the utilitys path.we use line locators for our pipeline crossings,but when we used to hand expose the lines,we would witch their location first.Saved alot of digging in the wrong spots.
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From: northwest,sc
I got the demensions and made some copper ones.
I walked out of the house and around to the side and they crossed.
I walked on a few feet more and said to myself this is stupid, and went back inside.
A couple of days later I remembered there was a big drainage pipe under where they crossed. I havn't fooled with them since.
I walked out of the house and around to the side and they crossed.
I walked on a few feet more and said to myself this is stupid, and went back inside.
A couple of days later I remembered there was a big drainage pipe under where they crossed. I havn't fooled with them since.
Cargo Master
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From: Cook Forest and Irwin PA
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From: Location, Location.
I've watched my uncle take a y-shaped branch, he prefers hickory or cherry, bend the branches of the y in his hands with the extension sticking srtaight out, then go walking around the farm. He'll come to a spot where, despite his best efforts, he cannot prevent the stick from turning downward. Dig there - there's always water. Dig anywhere else, you come up dry. But only some people in the family can do it. His father could, but I can't.
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From: Moonlight Moose Enclosure
but how does a stick do it? I have just been told my grandfather back in the 1920's would dowse on their farm with a "Y" branch and it would always lead him to a ground water source.
Posting Guru
Joined: Nov 2004
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From: N. Mississippi
I watched a plumber use a bent welding rod to locate the 6" pvc water line in the ground at the road where my house is located. That line is also buried 6 feet in the ground! I remember when my house was being set up and the plumber back then, now deceased, installing a saddle valve on that 6" line being held by his ankles from above!
But that plumber that used that bent welding rod, found that water line!
Oh yeah, my house was set up back in 98. This other plumber just used the rod a couple months ago.
But that plumber that used that bent welding rod, found that water line!
Oh yeah, my house was set up back in 98. This other plumber just used the rod a couple months ago.
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Today I was at the horse ranch where I do handyman work on occasion. We were building a new training ring and needed to auger some post holes where we knew there was a water line and a buried power line. Using a pair of two foot long pieces of #4 copper ground wire we easily located the path of the underground lines. Have you ever used, or seen someone using, a set of dowsing rods?
In England as I'm sure you know it's often done to locate underground water, also known as 'divining', some people use rods as you mentioned but it's also done using a willow fork resting on one's fingers.
Not sure I believe it works but I'm certain you could find cables with copper rods as you did.