In article ,
Dave wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

It's often impossible to read a spirit level accurately because you
can't get an eye square on to it.

Use a small mirror to read it.

In the particular instance which prompted this post it was rather dark
inside the place I was trying to get a level so I was already holding a
torch. An LED readout would have solved both those problems.

So are those digital readout ones any good -

As most of you are aware, I used to work in the aerospace industry and
one of the jobs I used to do was check the taileron angles (taileron is
a half of a tail plain that can be at any angle, independent of the
other half. Unlike a tail plane that has to be at the same angle as the
other side and creates the roll by using ailerons on the wings.)

In the old days, we used to use pantographs to measure the angles, which
were quite accurate. Then we moved on to digital angular measures. They
became the biggest pain in the arse. 0.1 degree could be the difference
between pass and fail for the test.

Make your own mind up about them, if you want that much accuracy.

Most spirit levels are only as accurate as the person reading them anyway
- so I wasn't looking for super accuracy.

Never having seen one, another thought is, how do you calibrate one?

Unless you're talking a decent one they're fixed anyway.

--
*I finally got my head together, now my body is falling apart.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.