How to Make Metal Divining Rods

These are not your grandpa's forked twig. My dad used these for years in his septic tank servicing business to locate field lines, water lines and septic tanks. There is nothing mystical about this, it just works. You can find a variety of things underground using dads "metal rods". Works for most people.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• One metal clothes hanger.
• Metal cutters and pliers.

1. Using the pliers, unbend the clothes hanger and straighten it out. It doesn't have to be perfect. You can cut off the most crooked section near the end and discard it if you want.

2. Using the cutters, cut the hanger into 2 parts of equal lengths. Finish straightening out the rods so they are fairly straight.

3. Bend each piece into an "L" shape. Try to have at least 3" on the short leg and 10" to 12" on the long leg. You want to end up with about a 90 degree bend, and you want both pieces to be the same.

4. Your rods are now made. You need to practice holding them. Grab one in each hand. First hold the short leg loosely with the long leg on top and pointing away from you. Now use your wrist to raise the front of the rods so the rod is level. Find the holding technique that works best for you. I like to place my fingers on opposite sides of the rod and balance it that way. However you do it the rods must be able to swing freely back and forth.

5. After you have become successful in holding the rods properly you need to practice using them. A simple way to do this is to throw your keys, a pocket knife or anything metal on the ground and slowly walk over it. Start a few feet from the object holding the rods level pointing away from you about 8" apart. As you pass over the object the rods should swing towards each other until they cross. Practice makes perfect.

6. If you have been successful with the practice in the previous step you can now search for underground items which you can't see. You should be able to detect anything metal including telephone and cable lines. You should also be able to detect many non metal items such as water lines, septic field lines, and septic tanks.

Tips & Warnings

• You can use other available metal besides clothes hangers. Welding rods work well also.
• Use a grid pattern for searching large areas and mark spots where you detected something. You may see a pattern or shape begin to form.
• Keep away from small children, these do present a hazard.
• These are good for finding things underground but are not very practical for use indoors or on concrete surfaces. They will pick up on house wiring, concrete reinforcement wire and so forth.
• Before doing any digging review the "Call Before Digging" guideline for your area.
• If you do decide to dig, be careful. What you think is a waterline may turn out to be an electric line.
• I've never used them to try and locate water or a likely place to dig a well so I can't recommend them for that.

[JL1543]

on 3/16/2009 My Dad uses this trick every once in a blue moon in his profession. I was glancing around for it online to see if I could find it, but only came across your ehow article. Thanks for sharing :).