1.    Bale twine is your best tool.

To lay out the bore path, begin by gathering hemp bale twine, wood stakes, large nails, and concrete nails. Stretch a straight string along the entire length of the bore path. Position your locator at the center, 50 feet ahead of the beacon housing, directly over the string. Once in place, use your drill rig’s remote to follow the string, ensuring it stays aligned with the target steering. (See Photo for reference)  

Horizontal Directional Driller Straight Lining the bore path

2. Straight Lining

Once the drilling machine is parked in the location chosen to start the bore, you will need to setup a transit over the bore path and straight line the transit over the path. Now you can line up your drill stem on the drilling machine to the bore path using the transit as shown in the photo below. The lineup should match the bottom of the stem in the machine to the top of the stem in the machine. This perfectly straight line up will greatly minimize the effort to keep the pilot bore from moving left and right out of alignment. Again, this is time well spent.

3. Let the operator do the bore.

Using your locator Target Steering Feature, the operator will watch the remote and follow the string on the ground. Determine a percent of grade that the operator can follow.

Check your beacon for percentage of grade accuracy using a 2-foot bubble level.