I just built a dock in my pond and I want to mount a scale so I can see at a glance how high above or below normal the water level is. I am sure someone makes a plastic board with durable numbers that I can permanently mount so I can see the change but I cannot find one on line. The ones I found only have a counting scale and I was hoping to get one with a zero point which I can mount just as water is flowing out over the dam and from then on have + numbers for above normal and - numbers for below normal.
Any suggestions for either DIY or a source?
Before my 2 acre pond had water. I found the deepest spot and drove a extra long T-Post in the bottom and slipped a 20 foot piece of PVC pipe over it.Measuring from the bottom I marked it in one foot intervals with red paint. As the pond filled I knew exactly how deep it was and when it first went over the spillway I could read exactly how deep it was at full pool. It has been working for 4 years now. Don't know if you could do something like that near your dock. Just a idea.
I guess I am 40 years too late to start with a dry pond, I just want something I can attach to the piling of the dock in 4 feet of water.
I would think a good epoxy paint on a white PVC pipe is a can do for me. A pipe can easily be clamped or screwed to the piling. Fortunately I live in an area where the difference between full pool and the lowest I have ever seen in a drought is 24" so I would be marking in inches rather than 1 foot intervals. That is why I was looking for a printed gauge, because a small scale could stretch my artistic talents to the limit.
But for now, a painted pipe is top of the list! Thank you.
Or maybe then a plastic yardstick or a aluminum one. You can always highlight in red paint at certain intervals. What worked out nice for me is I made my red marks all the way around the pipe so you could read it from anywhere on the pond. Your 2 foot fluctuations should be very easy to keep up with. Good luck.
I bought a bright yellow 48 inch aluminum measuring stick at Lowes. It's marked in inches and 1/8ths, counting up on one side of the face and down on the other. I fastened it to a piece of conduit and drove it into the bottom near the pier. I drove it in so at the top of the gauge the pond is just lipping the grassy spillway. I can see from one side how many inches low it is, and read the current level from the other side of the face.
This morning it was reading 19 inches for the level and 29 inches low on the other side of the face. 48 and zero is full pool.
I attached a measuring stick to my floating dock and discovered that the water level is amazingly stable.
Thanks anthropic, your post gave me a good chuckle. I wonder how many others understood or have done the same thing...
The company I work for makes huge storage tanks and we use a vendor that might work got ya.
George Bone Jr
Ozark Tank Products
153 lumber lane
Pineville, mo 64856
I asked him about this and he said till them to give me a call and I will build whatever they want custom for them. It is just a man and wife who do the work. Good people tell them Rusty from tank connections sent ya.