Had a foreman in Phoenix show me why my laser level was off by 3/8 of an inch

He pointed at the tripod leg sitting in a crack in the slab and said 'level don't mean squat if your base is trash.' Watched him reset it on a solid spot and my readings popped right. Anyone else have a basic setup trick that saved your ass on a job?

3 comments

3 Comments

maxl9317d ago

and that's the thing people don't think about, the ground is never actually flat. I've had setups where the slab looked fine but there was a tiny dip from an old expansion joint and it threw my whole line off by a quarter inch. What really saved me was always carrying a little piece of plywood or a scrap of MDF to put under the tripod feet. It spreads the weight out and keeps the legs from sinking into cracks or soft spots. Another thing is I always spin the level 180 degrees once it's set up and check if the bubble stays centered, that catches a lot of issues with the tripod head being loose. Also never trust a tripod that someone else set up, I learned that the hard way after wasting half a morning tracking down a phantom problem.

adam_baker17d ago

@maxl93 yeah the plywood trick is a lifesaver. I started doing something similar after a job where my line drifted like half an inch from the tripod feet slowly sinking into some gravel. I keep a couple scraps of 1/4 inch hardboard in my truck now, they're thin enough to slide under the feet without messing up the height too much. The spinning the level thing is smart too, I've caught a few loose heads that way. One thing that also helped me was putting a small level on the tripod legs themselves before setting the instrument on top, saves some headache. Nothing worse than chasing a phantom problem like you said, especially when you've already burned half the morning on it.

abbyp6117d ago

MAN, you reminded me of a buddy who had a setup on what LOOKED like solid concrete one time. He leveled everything perfect, took his shots, then came back an hour later and the line was off by almost a half inch. Turned out the tripod was sitting right on a hairline crack he didn't even see, and the weight slowly pushed one leg down into it as the day heated up. He threw his hard hat across the lot, I'm not even kidding. Now he carries three of those little square rubber mats you see under weight machines at the gym, he swears by them for sketchy ground.