Precisely machined and balanced bobs have pointed tips, and can be made of brass, steel, or other materials, including plastic. (Masons prefer nylon because it stands up better over time to the dampness that comes with the trade.) At one end of the string the weight is affixed. The plumb consists of a specially designed weight and coarse string made of twisted cotton or nylon threads. In a sense, the plumb bob is the vertical equivalent of the line level. The reel is mounted in the center on a shaft with small. You don’t have to be a physics whiz to understand that a string suspended with a weight at the bottom will be both vertical and perpendicular to any level plane through which it passes. Bruce tells me that some of these bobs are so well made that it may not be obvious that they come apart.

Ask a helper to steady the plumb bob and tell you which way to move the string. The plumb bob or plumb line employs the law of gravity to establish what is “plumb” (that is, what is exactly vertical, or true). Small plumbing repairs like unclogging a toilet or fixing a leaky faucet. As is so often the case, it isn’t how fancy the tool is, but how well you use it. For most home toolboxes, I recommend having a single bob that weighs a few ounces.

(It’s also thought that, in tandem, they used flooded ditches to determine levels.) Plumb bobs may weigh as little as an ounce or as much as several pounds, depending upon the application. We sell collectable and old usable tools that are lightly cleaned before being.

Evidence suggests that Egyptian architects used plumb bob-like tools to establish verticals in constructing the pyramids. Vintage dumpy 2 long small cast steel plumb bob in good used condition.

Small plumb bob