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Home > Archive > Building and Construction > August 2006 > laser level reliability
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laser level reliability
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| Hello, Do you use laser levels and worry about accuracy. I mean on any
given day it could be out of calibration and your work at say 40 feet
away is not gonna be right. I just tested mine tonite against a sight
level and at 58 each way feet its off by almost an inch. I will be
resetting a lot of form panels tomorrow. But I just can't see the
value in keeping a tool that could be wrong any time. Other than having
it calibrated every other month whats a fella to do? tonyg
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| RicodJour 2006-08-04, 3:25 am |
| tonyg wrote:
> Hello, Do you use laser levels and worry about accuracy. I mean on any
> given day it could be out of calibration and your work at say 40 feet
> away is not gonna be right. I just tested mine tonite against a sight
> level and at 58 each way feet its off by almost an inch. I will be
> resetting a lot of form panels tomorrow. But I just can't see the
> value in keeping a tool that could be wrong any time. Other than having
> it calibrated every other month whats a fella to do?
None of my lasers cost more than $300 and the accuracy is fine. If the
laser won't hold its calibration and you're worried about the accuracy
day to day buy a new one. Other than that, if you handle a quality
laser with care and check it against a water level every couple of
weeks or so, it's unlikely that you'll have problems. If greater than
usual accuracy is required, or greater distances involved, I still go
with a water level, particularly for things such as formwork.
R
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| marson 2006-08-04, 9:25 am |
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> tonyg wrote:
>
i say a laser should be accurate to 1/4" in 50 feet or whatever the
manufacturer says or it is defective and not worth a damn. if possible,
i periodically check forms or whatever with my 6 foot level to see if
my laser is working. somehow i trust a bubble i can see more than an
unseen internal mechanism, especially since i once had a Robotoolz
laser that started drooping. wound up with a foundation wall with a
corner that was an inch low as a result. never trusted it after that.
sent it back to the company and they just sent it back to me without
doing anything to it.
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| bill allemann 2006-08-08, 1:25 pm |
| some levels can/should be calibrated on occasion. How often depends on how
the unit was treated in storage and transport.
If it is a cheap one with no calibration, you would probably need a new one.
By the way, I've tried 4 cheaper self leveling ones last year, and none was
accurate enough.
On the other hand I have a manual torpedo style ( ten bucks) that is
extremely accurate.
You just have to try them out against a water level.
Bill
"tonyg" <tonyg618@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1154656668.272795.26040@75g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> Hello, Do you use laser levels and worry about accuracy. I mean on any
> given day it could be out of calibration and your work at say 40 feet
> away is not gonna be right. I just tested mine tonite against a sight
> level and at 58 each way feet its off by almost an inch. I will be
> resetting a lot of form panels tomorrow. But I just can't see the
> value in keeping a tool that could be wrong any time. Other than having
> it calibrated every other month whats a fella to do? tonyg
>
>
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| JerryD\(upstateNY\) 2006-08-08, 8:25 pm |
| > You just have to try them out against a water level.
Let me tell you about my water level that didn't read level.
To aid seeing the water, I mixed some anti-freeze with it before I poured it
into the tubing.
I didn't have enough water to fill the tubing so I mixed up some more and
filled the tubing.
The first time I used it, I was showing my daughter how it worked.
In the process of showing her, I noticed that it was reading true.
When holding the 2 ends together, the water in one end was higher than the
water in the other end.
It took me a while to figure it out.
When I mixed the second batch of water/anti-freeze, I used more anti-freeze
than the first batch.
Part of the water was heavier than the other part.
--
JerryD(upstateNY)
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| bbelly 2006-08-20, 9:25 pm |
| tonyg wrote:
> Hello, Do you use laser levels and worry about accuracy. I mean on any
> given day it could be out of calibration and your work at say 40 feet
> away is not gonna be right. I just tested mine tonite against a sight
> level and at 58 each way feet its off by almost an inch. I will be
> resetting a lot of form panels tomorrow. But I just can't see the
> value in keeping a tool that could be wrong any time. Other than having
> it calibrated every other month whats a fella to do? tonyg
>
And you know the sight (dumpy) level is more accurate because ... ?
The more meaningful check is to simply gauge it against itself. I was
accustomed to accuracy of a 16th inch (or better) over about 300 ft.
Your manual should have a description of the process, but simply put,
set the unit at one end of a range, mark grade on a post at each end
(one next to you, one at the far end)
Reset with the unit turned 180. Don't even think of tryin to keep the
unit on either of the previous grades ... I'd move the tripod around to
ensure a bit of a difference in elevation. But do those same marks again.
Compare the distance of each pair of marks, and you have the error. (
Actually, you find double the error, as this shows the difference as ½
above true level, and ½ below true grade.
It seemed logical to me to repeat this test at each quadrant. I recall
at some point discovering some sort of 'conical' error, where the whole
unit was casting with a slight cone shape ... so shallow that it was of
no consequence to our work, again in the order of a sixteenth at 300 ft.
I knew how to fix one unit ... never ever touched those screws ... good
enough is better than out of service.
Brian Belliveau
retired concrete contractor
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