At 09:24 25/07/05 -0700, David C wrote:
>At 04:45 PM 7/25/2005 +0100, nick brearley wrote:
>>For muckshifting and landscaping you are usually working to falls and you
>>need a (dual) grade laser or you're going to spend a lot of time
>>calculating interpolations or reverting to boning rods.
>
>That's all over my head- I'm a mechanical guy, not a civil. Got any links
>or references to being a do-it-yourself home Civil Engineer?
Sorry Dave. Guess usually I'm in awe of people who can explain the niceties
of Cat 6 wiring or tig welding so when something I have a little knowledge
of comes along I tend to jump in with both feet.
A couple of posters mentioned water levels, As you know the standard
rotating laser level does the same job as a water level. We can discuss the
pros and cons but on balance the laser is a lot quicker and less messy,
even though it can't see through trees...
But, let's say you wanted to dig a trench at a set gradient, say 1.48%,
through undulating ground. With a standard laser you'd be faced with either
setting your start and finish levels then reverting to sighting profiles or
carrying out many calculations to work out what the depths should be at
certain lengths along the trench. If you're lucky enough to have a grade
laser then you can just set the beam to a gradient of 1.48% and you're back
to one man operation again and life is good. Same would apply if you wanted
to make a nice uniform snaking driveway up to your house.
Hope I haven't gone to the other extreme and trivialised it for you but
that's the simplest way I can explain.
Good luck.
Nick
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