who is able to dig to grade laser? it's a skill i want to learn but do not know where to start? how did you learn? (grade lasrer for storm water and sewer)
First, welcome to the site! I'm not sure that an operator alone can dig by laser. It's been a few years (like, about five anyway), since I had to do any of that, but unless they've come up with some new technology you need somebody in the ditch checking grade for you. That person will tell you whether you're on grade or not. Of course, a good eye certainly helps get you close. (The exception to what I just said might be a laser sensor mounted on the side of the dipper, working off a grading type laser setup, but that's not the same as a pipe laser, that's set up in the trench itself.) To use the pipe laser, we always simply used a piece of wood, with two marks on it. One was for the bottom of the trench, and the second was for the grade of the bedding required. You dig to your subgrade, then dump/spread your bedding stone in, and the laborer dresses it up by hand to make grade. If I'm behind the times, I'm sure somebody else will say so...
I'm not sure what you are really asking but once you do enough digging you will be able to dig to dig at whatever grade you need to pretty much using your eyeball. Checking it every so often with the laser. We always just stick a hand or leg in the path of the laser beam to check grade. We just bought a brand new laser, used it for the first time on friday :thumbsup
Welcome, I think you are talking about digging to grade when a set fall is required. Amost all the new lasers can set a gradient. Digger, they have whizz bang lasers now that are mounted to the stick and you don't need a monkey in the trench...it even hooks up to a GPS....so it will flash up on a screen in the console and say "too deep and wrong spot knucklehead" Lol:bouncegri To answer the question there is not real secret its just practice.
When doing sanitary work, i'll stick the bucket in the trench and the pipelayer can see the dot on the teeth and tell me how I am for subgrade. I'll usually get it within a tenth by using my eye. When laying the bedding material in the trench, my pipelayer will direct me with hand signals on how much is needed and where to put it. He can see the dot on the stone as I am dipping it in the trench. Then he'll put the piece of pipe in and use the target to get it on grade. The local sewer authorities require 1/2 - 3/4 moon for sight, so we take our time and make sure that it is done right. For storm sewer work, I'll stretch a string between the stakes and paint a line. Then I'll dig by eye and check it with a rotational level laser. We just figure out what the grade will every 10 ft and check it with the level laser. We also check it on top of the pipe. Just figure out the difference from invert to top of the pipe by the thickness of the pipe plus diameter of pipe.
rino, i came across this accidentily. i weld a 3/4" x 8" cutting edge over the teeth of my excavator bucket. it just happened to be, that when i had the ditch dug to the proper depth for the bedding material, the beam was just cutting over the top of the cutting edge between the teeth. so now, i just keep digging until i see the beam coming over the top of the cutting edge, pull the box ahead, spread the bedding material, pipelayer levels it, and away we go
That's why I qualified my answer. I've seen and worked with lasers for dozer and grader blades, and know there are now systems coupled with GPS and tied in to the machine hydraulics that do practically everything but scratch the operator's nose for him. With those systems though, there's a known distance between the cutting edge and the laser sensor. With an excavator bucket, the cutting edge moves closer or farther away as you curl the bucket. I know that one of the grading laser sensors, stuck to the dipper would give you an idea of how close you are, but only if the bucket is curled to the same degree each time you measure. Do they have pipe lasers that do that now, or are you jerkin' my chain?
You should (being a digger ) have a read of this: http://www.trimble.com/gcs600exc.shtml
I should have! (But I was too busy reading the "Lonely Friday" thread...) :yup
thanks for the reply. i have set the laser for diggers, and left them to dig with no one checking the trench, from what i saw they would feather a little bit of sand out of there bucket to see the laser. and use that as a guide. Must just require practice to judge the depth in correspondence to position of the laser. It is very rare to see people do this, most of the time they require someone in the trench.
We have a piece of steel welded on a set of teeth that I use for grading slopes, but I can't use it for trench work because the material is so hard digging in these areas.
We call them 'gummy' plates i guess because it's like biting away at the sand with gums, not sharp teeth. real good for nice clean sand. makes laying pipe on the finished grade a dream!
I spent about $1100.00 for a CST laser model # LMH600 which can do slope in 2 directions. I then put a piece of 2" velcro down the side of my stick on the Takuchi TB 070 and another piece on the back of the reciever. I then find my starting point. set my grade on the laser, atach the reciever to the stick at the laser line and start diging. I can then dig the ditch to within 1" with no help. I now want to find a magnet mount for the receiver so I can use it in different locations like the blade or on the bucket for the bobcat or on a post on a grader. This is a real cheep way to do some of wat the $5000 to $15000 systems do but just not as well.
Dawn, can you hear the tone over the machine, I don't think that I could see the receiver from the machine. I thought of doing just what you said but haven't yet. Would love to dig with out a stick guy. Maybe a bigger receiver with a bright light would be better.
I can hear the tone but the TB 070 is a quiet machine. They do make recievers with remote readout just for this purpose. I do not know the model #.
I do the same as Dawn only my receiver has a rear window that displays arrows up or down when I am 1/4 inch off in either direction and a straight line when right on grade. I just watch the window. It doesn't matter how noisy the machine is. Like Dawn said, it is a pretty effective way to do what the more expensive equipment does for a fraction of the cost. My whole system cost $500 and is accurate to 1/4 inch per 100 feet and will cover a 1,000 foot radius. Mfg is CST Berger.
We have the magnetic base receiver and the flashing lights (as well as audible) like Bob mentions above. The receiver costs only a bit more than a standard staff mounted receiver and comes with a clamp to go on the staff. We just weld a piece of RHS to the back of the bucket and slot a smaller piece of RHS inside that is about 3' long when we want the receiver on the machine. Ours is a real basic version of the ones you can see here: http://www.advancedlasers.com/page40.html but a lot easier on the wallet than those. The disadvantage with the single mag receiver on a loader or skid is you get blind spots when the cab obscures the laser. The other problem is when deeper trenching you need a longer section of RHS on the excavator and it can get in the road but its OK for 3 or 4' provided the laser itself is located low enough.
Ours is similar to this one: http://www.laser-grade.com/snap.htm ahhh...found it...the first one on this page: http://www.lasertools.com.au/category313_1.htm
We have a Trimble laser and a reciever that can be stick mounted via magnetic mount plate. Works good, as mentioned about 1" is as close as you can get with the laser, maybe 1/2" if you were really on it. I've used ours a little on our 312 and I liked it, but it really shines on our 303, I can get 1/4" if I'm real careful. I use it when digging retaining wall footings with a cleanup bucket, we save tons of hand labor time. Plus, our crew can be doing something else while I'm preparing sub grade for the wall.
It is raining here today so I am going shopping to find a reciever. It looks like they cost about $500 to $700 maybe I can find one for less. They work with a standard rotating laser? Does the machine get in the way, I would think that the tripod would have to be positioned correct. Can I us the same reciever on a dozer? When using an excavator the position of the stick changes does that make it hard to do you mount reciever as close to bucket as possible? If that is true than how does the laser see the reciever when bucket is in the ditch?
I use the same reciever for everything. When on the excavator I mount it at what ever level works when the stick is strait up and down and the bucket is flat on the bottem of the ditch. Most important is the position of the tripod so the excavator or any part of it does not get in the way of the beam when I am digging. I think I paid about $250 but I would have paid more if this one had of been avalable 4 years ago. http://www.laserlevels4less.com/laser_detectors_index.html For anyone just getting started I would recomend looking for a green laser as there easer to see in bright sun. Dwan
lasers advice i could tell you,i myself am in the sewer and watermain bussiness,we have the pipe laser and thats all we use,we also have the dipper mounted laser as well but we use it for the road excavation,what i can tell you is this learn with your eyes dont relay to much on lasers,im not saying there no good dont get me wrong,but your better off learning to read the ground you dig with your eyes then relaying on the lasers,because if they dont work or mulfunction, chances are youll feel lost with out it,,but thats just my opinion,i enjoy using the laser on the dipper,when i do the road excavation but it just takes a bit of practice and youll be flying,,good luck happy digging:thumbsup
curious question Just getting my teeth in on the dirt buisness. Though done a lot of demo in New Orleans last year. Have used a rotary transit on drain line and septic though I am interested in buy one that will shoot grades and one that can be mounted on a boom or dozer dozer blade athough my pockets are not real deep I would like to buy something to cut out one helper. Do any of you guys in Dirtvillle have any suggestions. I was wondering in the tremble seris targets. I uderstand how they could read correctly buy the stick. But how do they read correctly on the the bucket curl. I was also wondering if any of you guys have had expierence with the komatsu 75uu heard good things about them.. Or would I be better of to get a 128 seris all I have right know to move with is an ole 2 ton gmc. appreciate any thoughts.