find a buried wire

[Greg Parrish]

For tracking a wire/cable and even copper piping, you can sometimes accomplish it with a cheap metal detector. While not precise and may pickup other junk like nails, it can give you a good idea. We've done that on our farm to get a general idea of where our prior water lines, conduit and cables run while laying out other projects. We have a Garrett Ace if memory serves me but I think even harbor freight and places sell cheap models. Start at the known point it goes in the ground and work your way out. Again, not an exact science but it's just metal so if you can access the ground and its not buried super deep it may provide another option to try to track it down.

[John K Jordan]

I have never tried this but it sounded kind of fun.
extend one conductor of the wire so you can wrap it around the spark plug wire of your lawn mower. As I recall, it only took a few turns. Get a portable AM radio and tune as low as you can go. …

I've used the DitchWitch locator, same principal! I have a Fluke network tester that I tried to use as a locator signal a couple times. It actually works if you are close enough.

On the subject of other location methods, have you seen the “thumper” in action? Our electrical utility uses one to locate failures in direct burial cable. Our 400 or so feet of cable from the pole to our transformer has failed twice in 18 years, both times with a tiny pinhole shorting to ground. The cable is buried about 4’ deep.
The “thumper” is a big device built onto a truck. After disconnecting both ends, it is connected to one end of the cable and injects a series of powerful pulses. The guys then walk along the cable path listening for thumps from the ground. If they don’t hear it they turn up the power and keep trying.
The last time they did this I was home and showed them were the line ran. Then while walking it myself I heard the “thump…thump” at one point, could actually feel it with my feet coming through 4’ of soil! Repairing it took an excavator and 5 people most of the day - what a job! Our power was off for 12 hours.

JKJ

[John C Bush]

Our invisible dog fence quit working and the service recommended an RF device--$7 back in the Radio Shack days-- that attaches inline to the buried "antenna" wire.
You then tune in an AM radio-had to buy that as well-and track the wire looking for the break. Seems the spark plug technigue could work the same.

[Roger Feeley]

Raudio Shack…..sigh….
They lost me when an employee very confidently lectured me on the number of ohms in a watt.

[Jim Becker]

Raudio Shack…..sigh….
They lost me when an employee very confidently lectured me on the number of ohms in a watt.

I worked for the company for eight years. Yea, there were a few employees out there that thought they knew more than they did. Nature of the beast. But there were many folks who were quite the opposite and provided a lot of value to customers. My rule for my staff was to never make up answers. "I don't know, but I'll find out for you" was the appropriate response. But regardless, it was very sad to me when the business died (the brand name is still around but it's owned by some entity that uses it to push all kinds of goods to people online, not anything like when Tandy Corporation was in charge) because it really was one place that the masses could find the "little stuff" that just is hard to come buy in the retail world today.

[Eric Arnsdorff]

I still have a couple of the inductors used to trace my radio fence wire with a radio. It works! I've found a broken line a couple of times. I doubt it would work if it were too deep, but it does work.

I also hate that Radio Shack is no longer around. I really think they had a great thing that just took the wrong direction. Just think how great it would be to go there to get parts for a Raspberry Pi or Arduino. There's a lot they could've done but they chose the more gimmick type stuff. Oh well - that's getting a bit off subject.

[Curt Harms]

But regardless, it was very sad to me when the business died (the brand name is still around but it's owned by some entity that uses it to push all kinds of goods to people online, not anything like when Tandy Corporation was in charge) because it really was one place that the masses could find the "little stuff" that just is hard to come buy in the retail world today.

I wanted a couple wire wound resistors for an LED lighting project. At the time the local Radio Shack was in business though the DIY area had shrunk progressively over time. I have no idea where I'd buy something like capacitors and resistors, things like that in the area. It's Ebay or Amazon or one of the speciality online stores.

[Jim Becker]

A lot of folks have run into that, Curt, although most are "of a certain age" I suspect. (I ran the operation in the mall down in Lower Bucks that starts with "N" for almost 8 years back in the 1980s).