"Ignoramus5974" wrote in message
...
On 2013-02-27, Steve W. wrote:
Ignoramus5974 wrote:
I entered into a business transaction of the sort "you buy two
compressors and whatever else you find in the building, including
wiring, for $500".

The building, a former car body shop, is to be demolished next week.

Today we took out a lot of wiring, including one inch copper mains
cables, and a 15 HP I-R T30 compressor and a 5 HP quincy compressor.

Pulled a lot of cable from the walls also. The cables pull, once we
released their "other ends" in their respective panels.

But here's a problem: one of the cables, I am guessing 2-0 gauge, four
conductors, is going into the conduit in the floor concrete.

We cannot find the panel that they are going to and we cannot pull
them out, as they are attached on their other ends. I am beginning to
think that perhaps they are extremely long and valuable.

Is there some low-tech way to trace where that conduit is going?

Well you might get lucky. Take an ohm meter and check for continuity
between any of the conductors and ground or each other. If you find a
good path grab a compass and connect up a low voltage DC source (12 volt
battery works well for this) to the conductive path with a self
resetting breaker. Now with the breaker tripping follow the compass
which will be going crazy with the magnetic field around the copper.
This is the same way the "short finder" kits for auto wiring works.

Another method would be a signal injector and it's tracking receiver.


My thinking goes in a little bit different direction. This building
has a huge parking lot. Maybe it goes to that parking lot.

The problem is that I cannot find any other panel that takes similar
cables going in.

i

Could this possibly be the ground wire for the electrical panel? This could
go to a grounding plate, grounding rod, rebar in the slab, structural steel
post, copper wire in the slab, etc.