Dale - all: Most of the commercial plumbs which I have come across are quite light weight so that they settle quickly. As a blind person, I have found that using a heavier weight allows easier touching of the weight without deviating the line.
For many years, I used an old cuckoo clock weight, but this is now lost. The replacement was simple. Near to my house by the sea is a tackle shop, I just bought a heavy beach-rod weight on the end of fishing line. It is about 8 ounces, about have an inch thick, and about 4 inches long. As I don't have a metal-working lathe, I put it into my 'drill press' as you guys call them, over here called a 'pillar drill', and held a file at about 30 degrees off vertical against its end to make a point. It works well! Even better, because I told the guy at the shop what I wanted it for, he gave it to me for nothing! David -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dale Leavens Sent: 28 December 2007 01:25 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] new tools Oh sure, I have used plumb bobs on and off for years, I lost my last one some time ago, I expect it is closed into a wall somewhere. This one comes from Lee Valley, where else. It is part tool, part collectors item. This one is brass and fits inside of a sort of spool which you can wrap the string around. The bob itself has a hole out the middle of the top you insert the string through, it comes out a little hole in the side, just melt a blob on the end of it to keep it from pulling back through. The bob comes to a sharp point so you can accurately locate any point immediately below another, just slowly let the bob down until the point touches. Mark the point and there you have it. this one comes with a small tube you can run the string through and chuck into a drill press for example to locate where the centre of a long drill job must be located or to level the press should that be necessary. Now for finding vertical I will tap a nail a little way into say the face of a door jam and put a loop of the string over the nail and slide it to some predetermined distance out along the nail, say an inch. I could place a rule or other measure on the floor and lower the point to touch to determine that distance, often though I just run my rule down along the face of the jam and measure parallel to the string. By sliding a straight edge like maybe a combination square along the face of the jam I can also judge if the string is falling a consistent distance or one could again place that straight edge along the face of the jam and measure that the distance from the point to the straight edge is the same as the distance from the nail to the face of the jam. Mostly though, this bob is a beautiful bit of machined brass. I have a chalk line around here which I never use as a chalk line but have on very rare occasions brought out in deference to the occasional sighted intruder but which I have used quite a bit as a plumb bob. If you don't need the accurate point anything will do to give you a vertical line to plumb up a post or stud or door and the heavier the better as you won't so easily deflect it as you measure. Often just the thickness of a finger at a particular location along the finger is plenty accurate especially compared with a level. That bubble on the end isn't all that sensitive to small movements off of vertical. Hope this was helpful. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: Brice Mijares To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 7:23 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] new tools Dale, please explain how a blind person can use a plumb Bob. I've often wanted to plumb something on my own, but always had to wait for someone to come by to plumb it for me.I already know about the beeping level. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] To listen to the show archives go to link http://acbradio.org/handyman.html or ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday Visit The Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various List Members At The Following address: http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ Visit the archives page at the following address http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ If you would like to join the Blind Computing list, then visit the following address for more information: http://jaws-users.com/mailman/listinfo/blind-computing_jaws-users.com For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man list just send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.11/1200 - Release Date: 27/12/2007 13:34 No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.11/1201 - Release Date: 28/12/2007 11:51 To listen to the show archives go to link http://acbradio.org/handyman.html or ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday Visit The Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various List Members At The Following address: http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ Visit the archives page at the following address http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ If you would like to join the Blind Computing list, then visit the following address for more information: http://jaws-users.com/mailman/listinfo/blind-computing_jaws-users.com For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man list just send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blindhandyman/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blindhandyman/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
