Best value cross line laser level?

[lostinthelight]

Like to tell us where you can buy thise these days? I haven't seen a centre reservoir model advertised in something like 20 years

Never knew they were ever in sale, I made mine 30years ago and have done various mods/improvements along the way ...easy enough to make , I have some pics somewhere....Maybe I should start making and selling

 

[Deleted member 174758]

They once were. The were certainly mentioned in the C&G texts in the 70s and 80s, but sort of disappeared about the time lasers became affordable, but I don't recall ever seeing a surveyor using one

 

[lostinthelight]

I first bought the two vials with 60ft of rubber tube from a carboot for a quid in the 90's but soon realized its limitations in the field. I set about making a more user friendly option with the rubber tube and made the level in the pic,
The original Feb container has been replaced quite
a few times over the decades and has now been superceded with a spray container which can be pumped to easily evacuate the airlocks that are inevitable in a long thin tube which is still the original.

 

[opps]

Fix both vials on the hose with valves open and fill the hose with water until water is about half way up the vials when both are held together. Close the valves/fix the tops. Fix the apprentice's vial to the wall (or wherever your datum is) so that the water meniscus lines up with the datum. Feed the hose out to where you want the datum to be transferred to. Lift the vial to where you think the datum should be and get the apprentice to open the valve at his end. Slowly open the valve at your end and watch if the water drops or rises in the vial. If the water drops lower your vial, if it rises lift your vial - adjust the position of your vial until the meniscus is at the middle of the vial. Get the apprentice to read off the difference between the datum and the menuscus (the water level I have is graduated in 1mm increments) and let you know so you can mark the actual datum correctly. If his meniscus is, say, 8mm below the datum then you need to mark the datum at your end at 8mm above the menuscus as well

Bear in mind that I haven't done this for a while, but basically that's how it works - sort of

Both Stanley and Stabila still make the vials, but they no longer do the fancier type with proper valves, but the graduated vials make transferring differences a lot faster

View attachment 285029

OMG, I am more stupid than I realised, it never dawned on me to put the hose/vials up first and then fill them. In my defence, I was working on my own.

 

[lostinthelight]

OMG, I am more stupid than I realised, it never dawned on me to put the hose/vials up first and then fill them. In my defence, I was working on my own.

Maybe youve miss read that opps ?

 

[opps]

Maybe youve miss read that opps ?

And accordingly, I have (yet again) proven how thick I am.

 

[lostinthelight]

And accordingly, I have (yet again) proven how thick I am.

When I do that I blame the pressure of work

 

[opps]

When I do that I blame the pressure of work

Work, alcohol, my grumpy other half?

Tnx though.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Well, in your defence nobody ever told you how to use them - and even when you buy a kit they don't come with any instructions...

 

[robinbanks]

You're not as think as you dumb you are!