Laser Measurers

[Welderpaul]

Fighting with a long steel tape today, passing the end off a building, over a scaffold, back up another scaffold.

Decided to buy a laser measurer. Screwfix catalogue nearest thing to hand. They do Bosch and Leica ones. The Leica stuff it the dogs goolies when it comes to survey stuff, so thought i would get one of them. Not too bad at 150ish quid. Anyone any experience of them/other makes/do's/don'ts?

 

[Hitch]

Did a job fitting a few posts, fitted absoloutly spot on. 5m odd floor to underside of steel. No checking with a proper tape either.
A few lads istalling some BIG glass panels, checking only with a bosch jobbie. No double checking. They said theyd happily trust it to 2mm over 5m. Struggle to get it that close with a proper tape!

 

[Welderpaul]

Ideal for measuring floor to ceiling heights i suppose - proper tape normally bent double, trying to estimate the mm!

 

[MrFluffy]

Ive had problems measuring up against odd textured surfaces with a middle of the road one. On plane block or the like it seemed fine, but try to measure up to a drunken cob wall etc and sometimes your better off using a tape and I never really trusted mine after a few obviously wrong readings. For what you peeps use them for, I bet theyre great though, far better than trying to flex the tape to stay rigid enough to shoot over the gap

 

[Highway_Star]

I use a Bosch pro one for measuring up cinemas for lens/screen calculations. It claims to be accurate to 0.5mm in 50m! £150 it set me back IIRC.

I'd be lost without it now. Trying to take these measurements with a tape is a fools errand. Usually ends in a lot of swearing and total gibberish from the calculations. Think trying to measure, with any degree of accuracy, from the glass window at the back of the cinema where the projector lives, to the middles of the screen using a tape, and you'll get the drift.

About a week after I bought it Bosch brought out a range of 'pro-sumer' models, which would probably have sufficed for my needs.

HINT: (As passed to me by a surveyor friend) Find a dimension in your home or workplace which won't alter, measure it ten times and note the readings. Once a year re-measure to check the unit. I used the width of our living room, with the laser tape sat on top of the mantlepiece.

 

[Welderpaul]

It turned up today, less than 24 hours after ordering. I was a bit busy so one of the lads opened it and had everything measured in the shop within 20 mins. New toys
Seems accurate against a tape measure, quite small as well, fits in the hand easily - works out angles, square meterage and cube. Probably functions i won't use mind.
The laser pointer sends the cat mad. She's knackered - been chasing it round the carpet for 10 mins tonight while i read the instructions

 

[Luke]

Been using one all week checking the scaling on servo-driven winches in the West End, impressed with the ability of them to be honest.

 

[Welderpaul]

I think this is one of those tools that you never knew how useful it is until you get one. Had to measure some beam lengths today, across a 6m gap, standing on the slab edge, and fired the laser across the gap to a free standing column. Otherwise its 2 men, a cherry picker and a tape measure!

 

[Robotstar5]

So we'll be seeing a load of tape measures soon in the "for sale" section?

 

[Iain Westland]

good, I am always running over them

 

[Robotstar5]

good, I am always running over them

How's the chap who had it in his pocket at the time?

 

[Iain Westland]

nah, that was a phone ...