"Don" wrote in message
...
I am wanting to have built or to build a pole barn garage about 30x30.
I have been working the ground with a power tiller and a tractor. It
is alot more level than it was but still has some low spots. Is there
a good way to ensure this is level?

Is there anything out there not too expensive that I could make or buy
that would help me get this as level as possible? (Short of buying a
200 buck transit). WOuld a laser level on a pole work?

As you can see a water level is the most popular low price solution. A few
years ago I showed guy that was putting new siding on his house how to use a
water level. He thought I was a genius for coming up with such a good
method but I had to confess that it's an old trick probably a hundred years
or more old. In old books I have seen them made by putting glass tubes in
the end of an old rubber hose. The only real advantage of using a laser or
transit is ease of use A pole barn or most residential building don't need
any more accuracy than you can get from a water level

A good technique to actually do the leveling is to get an old bed spring and
drag it back and forth.

Scp

In (sci.engr.surveying), Stephen wrote:

As you can see a water level is the most popular low price solution. A few
years ago I showed guy that was putting new siding on his house how to use a
water level. He thought I was a genius for coming up with such a good
method but I had to confess that it's an old trick probably a hundred years
or more old. In old books I have seen them made by putting glass tubes in
the end of an old rubber hose. The only real advantage of using a laser or
transit is ease of use A pole barn or most residential building don't need
any more accuracy than you can get from a water level

s/hundred/three thousand or more/

The Egyptians used water levels in laying out and constructing the
pyramids, according to some fairly recent articles in archaeological
journals.

--
Mike Andrews

Tired old sysadmin

On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 13:08:18 +0000 (UTC), (Mike
Andrews) wrote:

In (sci.engr.surveying), Stephen wrote:

As you can see a water level is the most popular low price solution. A few
years ago I showed guy that was putting new siding on his house how to use a
water level. He thought I was a genius for coming up with such a good
method but I had to confess that it's an old trick probably a hundred years
or more old. In old books I have seen them made by putting glass tubes in
the end of an old rubber hose. The only real advantage of using a laser or
transit is ease of use A pole barn or most residential building don't need
any more accuracy than you can get from a water level

s/hundred/three thousand or more/

The Egyptians used water levels in laying out and constructing the
pyramids, according to some fairly recent articles in archaeological
journals.

Where? Can't be any leaks. I'd love to see them. Or some key word to
go by to find out what they where thinking.

On Sat, 01 May 2004 21:46:09 GMT, Sunworshiper wrote:
On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 13:08:18 +0000 (UTC), (Mike
Andrews) wrote:
The Egyptians used water levels in laying out and constructing the
pyramids, according to some fairly recent articles in archaeological
journals.

Where? Can't be any leaks. I'd love to see them. Or some key word to
go by to find out what they where thinking.

The Egyptians didn't have garden hose. They dug trenches, filled them
with water, and measured off the water surface. For work too high above
ground level to conveniently reference off water in a surface trench, they
erected troughs or connected two basins with clay pipe.

Gary

On Sat, 01 May 2004 21:46:09 GMT, Sunworshiper
(rec.crafts.metalworking) wrote:
On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 13:08:18 +0000 (UTC), (Mike
Andrews) wrote:
In (sci.engr.surveying), Stephen wrote:

As you can see a water level is the most popular low price solution. A few
years ago I showed guy that was putting new siding on his house how to use a
water level. He thought I was a genius for coming up with such a good
method but I had to confess that it's an old trick probably a hundred years
or more old. In old books I have seen them made by putting glass tubes in
the end of an old rubber hose. The only real advantage of using a laser or
transit is ease of use A pole barn or most residential building don't need
any more accuracy than you can get from a water level

s/hundred/three thousand or more/

The Egyptians used water levels in laying out and constructing the
pyramids, according to some fairly recent articles in archaeological
journals.

Where? Can't be any leaks. I'd love to see them. Or some key word to
go by to find out what they where thinking.

They didn't need tubing or hose to do it - All the Egyptians had to
do was dig a network of trenches on the site they wanted level and
fill it with water. Use a calibrated measuring stick at each
reference point to transfer the levels to reference stakes, then dry
out the trenches and start leveling.

Once you get the site fairly level, flood the plain a few times
between scraping sessions to observe the low & high spots and correct
them - you could get billiard-table flat with a little time and
effort. (After accounting for the curvature of the earth, of course.)

-- Bruce --
--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net.

On Sat, 01 May 2004 21:31:29 -0400, Gary Coffman
vaguely proposed a theory
.......and in reply I say!:
remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Hey! Run the level across this bit will ya! I need to work out deep a
trench to dig!

The Egyptians didn't have garden hose. They dug trenches, filled them
with water, and measured off the water surface. For work too high above
ground level to conveniently reference off water in a surface trench, they
erected troughs or connected two basins with clay pipe.

Gary

************************************************** **
The Met Bureau is LOVE!

Gary Coffman wrote in message . ..
On Sat, 01 May 2004 21:46:09 GMT, Sunworshiper wrote:
On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 13:08:18 +0000 (UTC), (Mike
Andrews) wrote:
The Egyptians used water levels in laying out and constructing the
pyramids, according to some fairly recent articles in archaeological
journals.

Where? Can't be any leaks. I'd love to see them. Or some key word to
go by to find out what they where thinking.

The Egyptians didn't have garden hose. They dug trenches, filled them
with water, and measured off the water surface. For work too high above
ground level to conveniently reference off water in a surface trench, they
erected troughs or connected two basins with clay pipe.


That must have been a bit of a trick out in the middle of the desert!

Where did all that water originate?

Harry C.

Harry Conover wrote:

Gary Coffman wrote in message
. ..
On Sat, 01 May 2004 21:46:09 GMT, Sunworshiper
wrote:
On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 13:08:18 +0000 (UTC), (Mike
Andrews) wrote:
The Egyptians used water levels in laying out and constructing the
pyramids, according to some fairly recent articles in archaeological
journals.

Where? Can't be any leaks. I'd love to see them. Or some key word to
go by to find out what they where thinking.

The Egyptians didn't have garden hose. They dug trenches, filled them
with water, and measured off the water surface. For work too high above
ground level to conveniently reference off water in a surface trench,
they erected troughs or connected two basins with clay pipe.


That must have been a bit of a trick out in the middle of the desert!

Where did all that water originate?

Harry C.
Little thing called the Nile.

Harry Conover wrote:
Gary Coffman wrote in message . ..

The Egyptians didn't have garden hose. They dug trenches, filled them
with water, and measured off the water surface. For work too high above
ground level to conveniently reference off water in a surface trench, they
erected troughs or connected two basins with clay pipe.



That must have been a bit of a trick out in the middle of the desert!

Where did all that water originate?

Maybe denial isn't a river in Egypt, but Da Nile is.

Really, they had to have had water for the workers to drink anyway, so
they likely had enough extra around to set up a few bowl or trough levels.

That must have been a bit of a trick out in the middle of the desert!

Where did all that water originate?

Maybe denial isn't a river in Egypt, but Da Nile is.

Really, they had to have had water for the workers to drink anyway, so
they likely had enough extra around to set up a few bowl or trough levels.


4000 years ago it was a lush green agricultural paradise. Today's desert
(in the valleys of the pyramids at least) is some combination of natural
events and poor farming, grazing and forest practices ...

On 2 May 2004 09:39:37 -0700, (Harry Conover) wrote:
Gary Coffman wrote in message . ..
On Sat, 01 May 2004 21:46:09 GMT, Sunworshiper wrote:
On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 13:08:18 +0000 (UTC), (Mike
Andrews) wrote:
The Egyptians used water levels in laying out and constructing the
pyramids, according to some fairly recent articles in archaeological
journals.

Where? Can't be any leaks. I'd love to see them. Or some key word to
go by to find out what they where thinking.

The Egyptians didn't have garden hose. They dug trenches, filled them
with water, and measured off the water surface. For work too high above
ground level to conveniently reference off water in a surface trench, they
erected troughs or connected two basins with clay pipe.


That must have been a bit of a trick out in the middle of the desert!

It would have been, if they had built in a desert. But of course they
didn't. The heroic architecture of ancient Egypt is found in the Nile
river valley region of Egypt.

Realize that 4,000 years ago North Africa and the Middle East
weren't mostly desert.The Sahara was a great forest. Lebanon
was famous for its cedars. Babylon (Iraq) was a rich farming area.
The Nile valley was the most productive farmland in the known world.
Etc. Deforestation and climate change have turned many of these
regions into badlands today, but it wasn't always so.

Where did all that water originate?

The white Nile rises from Lake Victoria in Kenya (even today the
second largest fresh water lake in the world) and the blue Nile
rises from Lake Tana in Ethiopia. Picture the lower Mississippi
river valley minus the Corps of Engineers flood control dams,
and you'll have a good image of what ancient Egypt was like.

Gary

On Sun, 02 May 2004 17:25:49 GMT, John Husvar
vaguely proposed a theory
.......and in reply I say!:
remove ns from my header address to reply via email

All the stuff left over by dead workers....

Really, they had to have had water for the workers to drink anyway, so
they likely had enough extra around to set up a few bowl or trough levels.

************************************************** **
The Met Bureau is LOVE!