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Adjustable head tripod
Posted by nate-the-surveyor on June 28, 2019 at 3:01 pmHave you ever seen one of these?
They were made by K&E. K&E made a transit, that did not have any horizontal adjustment ability, in the 4-way leveling head. This rendered it nearly impossible to set it properly, and effeciently set up over a point.
Here is a pic of a K&E adjustable tripod head.
I’d like to acquire one, or learn more.
Thank you,
Nate
2xcntr replied 5 years, 2 months ago 7 Members · 10 Replies -
10 Replies
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Impossible? Balderdash. We had K& E transits on tripods with fixed length legs, and no slidey thing on top. The leveling screws had a remarkable range of adjustment. Just hang a plumb bob below, get the head centered over your point, push the feet in, and level up.
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The tripod for my Gurley Solar Transit, c.a. 1974, is a sliding head model. Gives a lot more sliding capabilities than the older fixed head tripods did. It also is removable so that a tribrach, either on a Theodolite or for prisms could be used on it.
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Peter, this is a first for me. There is absolutely no adjustment in the lower part of this inst. I’ve never seen one like this. There is also no place to hang a bob… It has an optical plummet in it. I don’t think many of these were produced. Here is my dad looking through it. Zoom in, and you can see the op. There may be a part missing, to hang a plumb bob.
N
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The only hands on with a fixed position transit was David White builder’s transit. It also did not have a lower motion so it took some nifty doing to setup and have it zeroed on the backsite. I only had to turn one angle to begin a half mile boundary and after that I simply setup and flopped scope twice (forward and backward) and set hub in the middle.
The engineer I worked for in Tyler had a K&E adjustable head tripod. I think the slide was fiberglass or maybe some molded material. It was ok, not as good as a moveable head instrument.
I never saw an adjustable leg tripod before 1978. We had a wooden adjustable that had been wood glued together and painted over and would not adjust anymore.
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I have one of those K&E tripods somewhere. It was made during the few years that K&E had optical plummets like yours. Unfortunately the transits they made during that period also had etched glass reticles. Every one I’ve ever seen is almost impossible to see through due to spotting. Spider web is still the best for those old guns.
If you want I will try to find it and send it to you. Shipping is expensive due to size/weight.
PM me if you are interested. Price is negotiable.
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Sure! I was going over an old worksheet, in an old folder, with coords written on it. My kids were intrigued. They want to do a survey “the old way”.
So, yes, if you find it, we want it.
Thank you!
Nate
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Back in the early ’70’s when I was just starting out, transits on fixed leg tripods were all we had. If I remember right, the fine tuning of getting over the point with the plumb bob hanging down was done by adjusting how far you dug in the feet. On pavement you’d just slide the feet away or towards the point to get the gun over it, but in dirt there was sometimes an awful lot of jumping up and down to get it just so. And you’re right, those old four screw transits had a ton of adjustment!
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A parallel shift head. Once the instrument is leveled you can move it around on the head without destroying the level. Zeiss had a system like that on their two screw , ball type theodolite base, works well once you are use to it.
T.W.
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