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General metal detector type question(s)

nopeda

New member
Hi,

I work for a district water company and we frequently have to turn the water service on and off at a home or business. This is an area where it gets fairly cold in winter so the cut-off valve is buried in the ground and access to it is just down through a small tube with a cap about the size of a half dollar coin. We have a tool that we put down the tube to turn the valve. Often/Usually the caps that should be at ground level get buried under an inch or more of dirt or grass or snow or whatever is in the area and can cover them. We use a metal detector to help find them which sometimes works very well and other times not so well. I'm wondering if there is something we can put on the caps or bury beside the tube to make it a lot easier for the detector to pick it up and maybe distinguish between what we put there and other random junk that happens to be lying around in the area. Or is there a way to get more specific than that like some type of detector that will or can be set to only pick up a particular substance we could put in place that's not likely there is other similar material just lying around the area...something not expensive like gold. I may not have explained what we're trying to work out very well but hopefully you people get the idea and may have some suggestions on how to improve our situation.

Thank you for any help with this!!!

David
 
I have a general idea of what your talking about... a few ???? Are the valves brass or cast iron? Are the valves deep with just a pvc pipe at the surface? What model detector are you currently using.. there are UTILITY type of detectors designed to find pipe underground,of course if most are within 6” of the surface a standard decent hobby detector should suffice... as with any metal detecting we need to first determine if the target we wish to find is ferrous or non ferrous and set up our machine to help diminish signals of the targets we wish to avoid and hit hard on the desired target.. I believe an aluminum can with top cut off would be a great artificial target to put over the top of these tubes as most detectors with hit hard on round aluminum provided there isn’t large iron in the same target zone...
 
Not to make a joke, but a single pull tab could help..every detector I own loves pull tabs.
But in reality I think what you said about aluminum can over the pipe would work big aluminum target like that would be easy to locate.
Maybe with a pinpointer also if not too deep.
 
http://www.fisherlab.com/industrial/manuals/FX3manual-reader.pdf
It will hit a section of about 3/4" pipe to 3 feet.
A 2-Box Pipe Locator will hit large ferrous and non ferrous both.
And some models can hook up the transmitter to the pipe, and you carry the receiver to trace it--for a long distance.
 
Different metals will usually give different tones for different metals . Some metals , which are not as prevalent , will give a distinct tone , and this is what you are looking for ,, that distinct tone .. The easiest fix for this would be to place a piece of this metal in the cap ,, I can almost guarantee , if you were to put a silver dollar sized Gold coin in that cap ,, you'll be able to find them valves ,,,,,,,
:twodetecting::clapping::cheers:
 
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