What is this?

[scp64]

 

Have I run across something that is essentially nothing? What is it?

 

Thanks

scott

[+Renegade Knight]

It looks like a really bad photo of a PK nail.

 

A PK nail is used to mark a point for survey purposes. When you need a temporary point but don't need a benchmark* you can drive in a PK nail. They are tough little buggars and drive into asphalt really well.

 

* You can use them as a project benchmark. They just won't rise to the level of the more widely recognized bechmarks that have a lot more rules and regs on placement and construction.

Edited February 4, 2008 by Renegade Knight

[scp64]

 

Have I run across something that is essentially nothing? What is it?

 

Thanks

scott

[scp64]

Thank you for the info!

[+Pirates of Tuskegee]

Thank you for the info!

Where did you find it and under what circumstances? I would love to find out why you thought to take a picture of it? They aren't exactly found easily unless you are looking for one.

[+Team Cotati]

Thank you for the info!

Where did you find it and under what circumstances? I would love to find out why you thought to take a picture of it? They aren't exactly found easily unless you are looking for one.

 

What are some of the search techniques that you use when looking for one?

[+JohnnyVegas]

I looks like a beacon for an ICBM. That just might be the real GZ

[+Pirates of Tuskegee]

 

What are some of the search techniques that you use when looking for one?

Well, I still don't know why someone would want to find one unless you are a surveyor. Usually the 'veyor has a rough distance from something that can narrow the search area. On top of that, most 'veyors (I used to be one) put them in a crack in the asphalt or on the border between asphalt and concrete, in a concrete crack, in a crack in a rock, or even sometimes, in wood (any weakened area that make it easier to drive in). Other than that, areas to look for are around street corners of other places you can see in multiple directions.

 

Sometimes you find them with flagging (or the remnants of flagging), washers, bottle caps, inside a painted circle, etc attached. (see images below) They make them easier to find later on. Sometimes the Surveyor will use a type of metal detector to find them (last image below).

 

The points are used as control points for surveyors and they are usually locating all the pertinant things around like utilities, buildings, driveways, streets, curbs, sidewalks etc, so places that you can see the most "things" are where you might find them. Suprisingly you can probably scour just about any parking lot or road corner or sidewalk and find them, but like I said, you normally don't notice them unless you are looking for them.

 

That's why I want to know what the original poster was looking for when he found it.

[+Team Cotati]

 

What are some of the search techniques that you use when looking for one?

Well, I still don't know why someone would want to find one unless you are a surveyor. Usually the 'veyor has a rough distance from something that can narrow the search area. On top of that, most 'veyors (I used to be one) put them in a crack in the asphalt or on the border between asphalt and concrete, in a concrete crack, in a crack in a rock, or even sometimes, in wood (any weakened area that make it easier to drive in). Other than that, areas to look for are around street corners of other places you can see in multiple directions.

 

Sometimes you find them with flagging (or the remnants of flagging), washers, bottle caps, inside a painted circle, etc attached. (see images below) They make them easier to find later on. Sometimes the Surveyor will use a type of metal detector to find them (last image below).

 

The points are used as control points for surveyors and they are usually locating all the pertinant things around like utilities, buildings, driveways, streets, curbs, sidewalks etc, so places that you can see the most "things" are where you might find them. Suprisingly you can probably scour just about any parking lot or road corner or sidewalk and find them, but like I said, you normally don't notice them unless you are looking for them.

 

That's why I want to know what the original poster was looking for when he found it.

 

Thank you, that was most helpful and informative.

[+Pirates of Tuskegee]

 

Thank you, that was most helpful and informative.

Anytime

[+Okiebryan]

Whatever party chief painted on the pebble washed surface needs to be fired...

 

BTW, PK nails are also more magnetic than regular nails. Makes em easier to find with a pinfinder.

Edited February 5, 2008 by Okiebryan

[+Pirates of Tuskegee]

Whatever party chief painted on the pebble washed surface needs to be fired...

I agree wit hyou there. The picture is not mine. I just pulled the pictures off the net. I don't regularly take pictures of my control points

BTW, PK nails are also more magnetic than regular nails. Makes em easier to find with a pinfinder.

Not "technically" true. They are not, nor are any other nails, magnetic in and of themselves. Therefore one cannot be more magnetic than others. They are heftier, and made with a higher iron content than similar nails of that size so they produce a stronger signal in the magnetic locater AKA Schonstedt.