Surveying Question

[Tony Anders]

As you all may know I am a greenhorn when it comes to cave surveying.

I was wondering what type of tape measure has most surveying teams had the best luck with.

I was at Wal-mart earlier and had a Stanley brand tape in my hand, (100 footer) then I thought, I have a different tape already, it was one of the open type reel. Would this be better to use, so it will be easier to clean or or would the smaller sealed tape be better?


I thought I would check with some people with some experience before I go out and buy one that I may not have needed to begin with.

Also, do most of you all use normal notebook type paper or would it be easier to use the graph paper in the caves?

Thanks again.

[Kelly]

Hi Tony! I like using the fiberglass/plastic tapes that come on a reel. I also look for tapes with measurements in feet with 10ths instead of inches, and some come with both (one on one side and the other on the opposite side). If you are wanting to sketch to a certain scale (feet, meters, etc.) make sure you find a tape with that scale. It will make things much easier.

I'm not sure if the Stanley brand is one of those metal ones, but if it is, I have used one of those, but it was pretty useless after only the one trip. It got coated with mud and when reeled in, it got mud inside the case, and now I can no longer pull it out or push it back in.

I like graph paper best for sketching. "Write in the Rain" has a great paper that can get wet and still not be ruined. Having graph paper makes it easy to draw things in relation to direction and helps draw at a certain scale. At caving supply places like IMO you can order special made graph paper with graph paper on one side and a neat chart on the other side that fits your data perfectly. "Write in the Rain" also makes a neat notebook to carry it all in that is water/mud friendly.

Hope this helps!

-Kelly

[Azurerana]

Keson brand 100ft open reel plasticized fabric. Get one with standard feet and tenths or metric on the back. Cool. Also, (experience a bit different from Kelly's)
A short (25 ft or less) lockable Stanley retractable metal tape comes in handy to do cross-sections. You can 'reach' places where you cannot step (across a slot, for example). Yes you do need to be careful not to mud it up, but the advantage is if you have your big tape laid parallel to the passage, you can use the short one perpendicular and get an exact cross.

Paper? Write in the Rain Survey books 5x7" in diameter. Tenths on the tape, and tenths (or metric) on the paper, so you don't have much conversion to do. If your caves are dry, regular 1/10 engineering paper or 1/4 math graph paper works fine-- 1/4 inch paper goes with the standard 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 quartering on a standard tape. What ever you get, match the tape to to the book (metric to metric, tenths to tenths, standard to standard). Otherwise your brain hurts.

Look at these things online at www.forestrysupply.com or www.benmeadows.com

A sighting compass and clino are better than a Silva or Brunton compass. (This is assuming you are cheap like the rest of us, cannot afford a $12,000 laser rangefinder, or other real survey equipment. ) If tempted by electronic gismos at the hardware store (electronic levels, rangefinders, and all sorts of things sold to the construction trades) you should trade off on the cost of these gadgets, their suitability to be banged around, get dropped, wet and readability in the dark.) Look at the presumed precision and accuracy, too. Oh. Think about pencils. Pencil will work on almost anything and won't run when wet (not true of all inks--even some ballpoints bleed). I know people who like hard drafting pencils, and ones who like soft, darker drawing pencils. Take more pencils than you think you need, because they wander off.

[L Roebuck]

For cave survey and mapping we use a 100' survey tape (decimal feet on one side) reel, the Rite in the Rain water-resistant field notebooks and our compass and clinometer is Suunto.

Rite in the Rain www.riteintherain.com
Suunto www.suunto.com/

I will put these links in Cave Gear too.

[madratdan]

Definantly stick with the open reel tape. One drop in the mud can ruin the steal tapes. Some people I survey with are using lazer type measuring devices and swear by them. I bought a cheap Stanley and got what I paid for.........something that doesn't work on the wall surfaces of a cave. Of coarse the expensive one work just fine.................if you can afford them. Good luck.

[itabot]

Which cheap Stanley did you buy Dan? The $20 cheap or the $100 cheap. I bought the $20 cheap because it said laser tape, but it was sonar with a laser pointer. There is a Stanley that is an actual laser measurer that I have heard works good in comparison to the more expensive Disto.

I also recomend cutting the metal hook off the end of the open reel tape so it doesn't get hung up on things while reeling it in.

[madratdan]

Yea.....I bought the cheap one.