with gps, mm gps and laser-levels, I wonder if anyone ever has use for a precision tilting level, or if they've become old dinosaurs and basically useless.
I'm sure millwrights still use them. On the rare occasions that I need that kind of precision I rent a first order digital level.
I would think they are still useful in areas of vibration (around operating machinery) and on bridges, as well as for precise layout.
We do a lot of leveling on dams where water is flowing through underneath, and sometimes there is a lot of vibration. Same thing on bridges over the tainter gates, the water causes a lot of vibration. That is a disadvantage of the compensator system
So, do you have one for sale?
That's a good point, a digital level probably wouldn't like that environment.
If you want to buy a good tilting level try the Kara Company in Countryside, IL (Chicago area). They used to have a vault full of them - Wilds, Jenas, Kerns, you name it.
Essential, along with a jig transit, when aligning bearings for a bascule bridge. Certifying tolerances of 0.015" would be tough without one.
So, do you have one for sale?
I have a Wild N-3 precise tilting level I haven't used for a while.
It also has the erecting eyepiece.
The Invar rods are Kern centimeter graduated and come in a loooooong wood box.
Dave Lindell, post: 338185, member: 55 wrote: So, do you have one for sale?
I have a Wild N-3 precise tilting level I haven't used for a while.
It also has the erecting eyepiece.
The Invar rods are Kern centimeter graduated and come in a loooooong wood box.
The Kern and Wild Invar rods were 3meters long, I know that Wild also had 1m and 2m Invar rods graduated in either cm or inches, with the markings / rod inverted to use with the original (non-erecting) eyepiece of the N-3. Kern rods were finished in natural aluminum; Wild rods were painted bright orange; each had the calibrated Invar-tape centered in the middle of the rod and suspended vertically on a spring. Kern rods also had a built-in mercury thermometer affixed to the each rod.
NDrummond, post: 338187, member: 1865 wrote: The Kern and Wild Invar rods were 3meters long, I know that Wild also had 1m and 2m Invar rods graduated in either cm or inches, with the markings / rod inverted to use with the original (non-erecting) eyepiece of the N-3. Kern rods were finished in natural aluminum; Wild rods were painted bright orange; each had the calibrated Invar-tape centered in the middle of the rod and suspended vertically on a spring. Kern rods also had a built-in mercury thermometer affixed to the each rod.
Don't forget your 15+ pound turning point turtle (plate), pin and maul. Those 5 pound Seco turtles you can buy today are bulls**t. The rods had legs, too. Oh, and the instrument umbrella on hot days. A lot of *stuff* to drag around during the workday.
Did a few years of precision tilting levelling at a shipyard drydock (big enough to be the West Coast emergency nuclear powered vessel drydock); tough conditions, lots of heavy equipment moving about, had to pick a weather window, cool with a light wind, cloudy helped a lot. Even with best efforts we were working at the limits of the equipment and had about a 20% level loop run failure rate. Yea, the whole observation set got thrown in to a least squares adjustment ultimately, but every loop had to meet specs. They used the results to inject water through wells around and under the dock to keep it level (unstable sandy soil).
Think about it, it was interesting work. There were a few dozen "bench marks" surrounding the drydock, the elevations of which changed regularly, and several "control" bench marks located a km or two away on bedrock, one of which was the 100 year old harbor sea level gauge station. They really only cared about the relative heights of the dock benchmarks amongst themselves to a very tight specification; the runs outside the base had to meet a much looser spec. I doubt a modern digital and/or automatic level could punch through the vibration problems encountered on such a site.