A Divine Exerience

[dirt painter]

I am curious how many Techs have had sucess with divining rods? Of those who have used this method, what underground facilities and/or structures were you able to find?

We are fortunate to have much technology at our disposal in our industry yet I still run into situations where EM & GPR equipment will not tell me what I need to know.

I have had some success witching plastic water and sewer lines but I have never been willing to put paint on the ground without being able to verify with another form of technology.

[beyond help]

I only use for double checking. I will not put paint on the ground that way.

[ifinditunderground]

Dowsing is not a very reliable method to locate underground utilities but it absolutely does work. You can actually locate almost any utility with dowsing rods, but extreme skepticism should be exercised every time you do. We only use dowsing rods if our crews are trying to locate plastic utilities with test holes. We will not paint any information obtained by them. They are also useless if you have more than 5 mph winds blowing. They will turn on any field regardless of what is generating that field, including the earths naturally occurring fields. Did I use field enough there? Good luck and be careful.

[yahoo]

i use the rod only for locating water lines with out a tracer but i say with caution beware!!!! betting your job on it would not be good for you.....

[GinRummy]

That was one of the first things I was ever taught and it was followed by a quick "never trust this".

[Metroman]

Certain people cant do it for whatever Bio electric reason and im one of them................

[bixbix78]

I personally am very confident with divining rods after a few years of practice. This is the only solution I personal have for non conductive plant locates. Divining can locate ug non conductive lines, holding tanks, ug vaults structures, empty pvc piping, septic fields, unloc gas/sewer stubs, etc. A brief how-to for non-contract location, as this practice is extremely dangerous, and I would hate to contribute to any contractor locator's loss of employement. #1 Locate all ultilities by electronic location, including all known/easily indentfied abandoned plant. #2 Go inductive to find all not known, and or abandoned plant not previously indentified #3 Get the sticks. Walk, in a perpendicular fashion, across the area where you believe the non conductive plant is located to indentify remaining ppe/cable, or ug structure. (For exmaple: If the non conductive plant/structure is heading North/South walk East or West)..Depth approximation can be made also by walking backwards aftering identifying line. Begin by finding target, then walk backwards untill return of sticks to a straght line (my sticks turn in over target), there's your approx depth. Some may be very skeptical, but it works +/- a foot our so, or @ least it does for me. Note depth approximation really depends on where the decision is made that the sticks are back inline. Like others have said extremely dangerous, but it has it's place when electronic locate methods will not give a proper resolution. Practice makes perfect. Practice divining across an area that is full of conductive pipe/cables. Try the depth process <make notes>. Follow that up with electronic location <check depth> and compare.

[Goldenboy]

I have a few bent brazing rods in my truck. It is amazing how well they work.

It is fun to locate out a lot by electronic means and then go over it with the dowsing rods after your done. Once you get used to them you can pick up trenches that are only a foot or so apart.

One thing these are great for is a bypassing line that won't tone. Witch it out and then dig it up and couple it.

REMEMBER NEVER PAINT FROM THE STICKS

[Goldenboy]

Here's a portable pair of dowsing rods you can keep at your side at all times. It's amazing how many people sell these things on the bay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bob-Slack-Portab...3286.m20.l1116

[phoenix827]

uhh, ok. Dowsing rods for feng shui?