Does anyone have any experience with the laser receivers that attaches magnetically to the excavator dipper. I saw one in a magazine for about $750. I dig foundations and footings alot and thought this might be a good thing to have instead of paying someone to stand around all day checking grade.:drinkup
I have a trimble cr600 but have yet to use it. I think that I paid about 650 for it at my local trimble dealer. Good luck!
They work nice but its not going to get you as close on basements or footings as you think, you need an actual receiver designed for excavators for that. Besides you can always blame the guy with the stick when things go wrong. LOL
Your right about having the guy in the hole to blame. Not only that, without the guy in the hole, you may be the one running the mexican backhoe to clean up those high spots left behind
Think about all the different positions your boom, stick & bucket can be in. Think about how you tilt your grade stick foward to find your beam apply that to your machine. Then like Turbo said, just think if you can't reach what you left behind. You need to spend more money for a good system. I sold lasers in the mid 1990's, never sold one of these because I did not a mad customer. danhoe
http://www.loyola.com/leica/products/machine_automation/pdf/MC200.pdf I own one of these page 2 the Depth Master and think it is great.! The unit will tell you if you are plump and level so works very well. No problem with the stick in different positions. I paid $1500. I also have a mast on my dozer and use it all the time for pad prep. After you get to grade you should be able to use your eye for most of it and then check every so often with Depth Master to make sure before you back up, I check every 20 feet or so then fine tune with bucket bottom and move on. It saves alot of time for storm water pipe and footings. I still will have a guy in the hole but he can do other stuff besides stand around looking busy with a grade stick. I also will have him check once in a while with grade stick just to make sure.
I have an Apache Plus 5. The Apache 6 has 30 degrees of compensation built into it (so the stick does not need to be straight up and down). They work well, there is a learning curve to them though.
I had the trimble one with the magnet for the dipper arm. Here are a few of the probloems I encountered. 1. Its a bitch to put on the dipper arm. Most guys put the laser out of the hole so they can shoot a benchmark. With that being said when you go to put it on the dipper arm you will need a ladder because it will be up around the boom pin. On the other side if you put the laser in the hole the magnet would have to go on the bucket or stick around dog bone and thats not good either. 2. The magnet is no where near stong enough. Are first one broke in a few hours trying to get some rocks out and shook the stick and fell right off. After I got the second one we were more careful but it did slid around when compacting with the bucket. 3. For it to work properly it must only be relied upon when the stick is plumb. Even a few degrees off plumb can make a difference in feet. Think about leaning the grade rod forward to see how much further you have to dig. On a ten foot rod every foot you move the top of the rod will make a 6" difference in grade. These systems look nice when reading about it but is no subsitute for a guy checking the grade and hand raking it perfectly level using the laser