Locating Invisible Fence
 

I have a need to locate my buried Invisible Fence wiring at several
locations prior to digging. I have been considering getting a metal detector
for other reasons, on eBay. Will a metal detector work for locating this
wire? If so, will the cheaper ones do the job?

"Bob Bonneville" wrote in message
...
I have a need to locate my buried Invisible Fence wiring at several
locations prior to digging. I have been considering getting a metal
detector for other reasons, on eBay. Will a metal detector work for
locating this wire? If so, will the cheaper ones do the job?


Dowse it. Take a piece of straight coat hanger wire that is 15" long. Bend
a right angle at 3". Hold the short ends loosely in your fists and have
your fists close to you between waist high and belt high. You can also hold
them in two old tabasco bottles. You want them to be fairly level. They
will point in front of you. If you walk over a wire, or a pipe, they will
come together, and point at each other. I have used this countless times to
locate stuff.

You can get a used metal detector for a couple of hundred bucks, and it
depends how deep the wire is buried as to how easily the metal detector will
find it. A White'e 5000, 6000, or 6DB would do it.

Steve

"Bob Bonneville" wrote in message
...
I have a need to locate my buried Invisible Fence wiring at several
locations prior to digging. I have been considering getting a metal
detector for other reasons, on eBay. Will a metal detector work for
locating this wire? If so, will the cheaper ones do the job?


No, but there is a far simpler way. Put the collar around your neck. Now
walk the perimeter zig zagging a bit.

On 26-Jun-2005, "Edwin Pawlowski" wrote:

No, but there is a far simpler way. Put the collar around your neck. Now

walk the perimeter zig zagging a bit.

sounds like a job for the boy... now where's that boy got to. :D

Even if the collar doesn't have an audible warning signal, you can get a
test light to go across the electrodes. -B

"Bob Bonneville" wrote in message
...
I have a need to locate my buried Invisible Fence wiring at several
locations prior to digging. I have been considering getting a metal
detector for other reasons, on eBay. Will a metal detector work for
locating this wire? If so, will the cheaper ones do the job?

On Sun, 26 Jun 2005 08:23:41 -0700, "SteveB"
wrote:


"Bob Bonneville" wrote in message
...
I have a need to locate my buried Invisible Fence wiring at several
locations prior to digging. I have been considering getting a metal
detector for other reasons, on eBay. Will a metal detector work for
locating this wire? If so, will the cheaper ones do the job?


Dowse it. Take a piece of straight coat hanger wire that is 15" long. Bend
a right angle at 3". Hold the short ends loosely in your fists and have
your fists close to you between waist high and belt high. You can also hold
them in two old tabasco bottles. You want them to be fairly level. They
will point in front of you. If you walk over a wire, or a pipe, they will
come together, and point at each other. I have used this countless times to
locate stuff.

You can get a used metal detector for a couple of hundred bucks, and it
depends how deep the wire is buried as to how easily the metal detector will
find it. A White'e 5000, 6000, or 6DB would do it.

Steve


We used to have an old guy at work who located water wells that way.
We drilled a lot of dry holes.....

On Sun, 26 Jun 2005 17:41:06 GMT, "B" wrote:

Even if the collar doesn't have an audible warning signal, you can get a
test light to go across the electrodes. -B


If he's wearing the collar there will be an audible sound, at least
the first couple times he finds the buried wire....


"Bob Bonneville" wrote in message
...
I have a need to locate my buried Invisible Fence wiring at several
locations prior to digging. I have been considering getting a metal
detector for other reasons, on eBay. Will a metal detector work for
locating this wire? If so, will the cheaper ones do the job?

"Ashton Crusher" wrote

We used to have an old guy at work who located water wells that way.
We drilled a lot of dry holes.....

You must have drilled some wet ones, too, or you would not have used him.

Steve

Bob Bonneville wrote:

I have a need to locate my buried Invisible Fence wiring at several
locations prior to digging. I have been considering getting a metal detector
for other reasons, on eBay. Will a metal detector work for locating this
wire? If so, will the cheaper ones do the job?

I have used a portable AM radio successfully. Start near the
transmitter and tune across the band to find the frequency that picks
the buzz up the best. You can then use it like a detector, listening
for the buzz emitted from the wire when the transmitter is on.

Thad

On Sun, 26 Jun 2005 15:34:06 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski"
wrote:

No, but there is a far simpler way. Put the collar around your neck. Now
walk the perimeter zig zagging a bit.


That's funny but really practical and hands-free too. Mark the
locations as you go along.

"PaPaPeng" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 26 Jun 2005 15:34:06 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski"
wrote:

No, but there is a far simpler way. Put the collar around your neck. Now
walk the perimeter zig zagging a bit.


That's funny but really practical and hands-free too. Mark the
locations as you go along.

He'll mark the location each time it makes him ****.

On Mon, 27 Jun 2005 00:44:21 -0500, "PhotoMan"
wrote:


No, but there is a far simpler way. Put the collar around your neck. Now
walk the perimeter zig zagging a bit.


That's funny but really practical and hands-free too. Mark the
locations as you go along.

He'll mark the location each time it makes him ****.



A good idea always has unexpected benefits. He gets to make good use
of his free hands.

On Sun, 26 Jun 2005 14:56:09 -0700, "SteveB"
wrote:


"Ashton Crusher" wrote

We used to have an old guy at work who located water wells that way.
We drilled a lot of dry holes.....

You must have drilled some wet ones, too, or you would not have used him.

Steve


When you are drilling in areas with other wells you are bound to hit a
few by chance even if your method is throwing darts. He was only
"used" because he was the guy in charge, not cuz anyone thought it
worked but him.

In article , "Bob Bonneville" wrote:
I have a need to locate my buried Invisible Fence wiring at several
locations prior to digging. I have been considering getting a metal detector
for other reasons, on eBay. Will a metal detector work for locating this
wire? If so, will the cheaper ones do the job?

Yes, even a cheap metal detector will work. But there is a better way.

Get a portable AM radio. Tune it to the bottom end of the scale, and turn the
volume all the way up. Walk along where you believe the wire to be, swinging
the radio from side to side a few inches above the ground. When it's over the
wire, you'll hear a rythmic "bomp...bomp...bomp..." in the static.

This also works to locate breaks in the fence: when the noise stops, you found
the break.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt.
And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

In article , "Edwin Pawlowski" wrote:

"Bob Bonneville" wrote in message
...
I have a need to locate my buried Invisible Fence wiring at several
locations prior to digging. I have been considering getting a metal
detector for other reasons, on eBay. Will a metal detector work for
locating this wire? If so, will the cheaper ones do the job?


No, but there is a far simpler way. Put the collar around your neck. Now
walk the perimeter zig zagging a bit.

Funny, but not practical - the collar emits a warning tone when it's within
about 3 to 6 feet of the wire, so you can't locate the wire with any degree of
precision that way.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt.
And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?