Construction level assignment – the ability to control the strict horizontality and verticality of building structures. This is an indispensable tool when pouring concrete foundation and floor screed, erection of walls, installation of windows and doors, pillars at the local area, construction of subsidiary buildings and T. D. Even the correct installation of the washing machine and the refrigerator does not do without the use of the construction.
Appointment and principle of work
The simplest bubble level includes an aluminum base (closed profile), which is a perfectly smooth rectangular case with a properly selected center of mass. The latter is necessary that the tool is displaced as little as possible and fell from the measured surface. Track horizontal, vertical and diagonal (45 degrees) Level 3 ampoules help, filled with light and very fluid (for example, alcohol), on which the central and two side marks are applied.
With the appearance of at least a small microcrack in an ampoule with liquid, the latter begins to disappear, and the use of the level becomes impossible.
Filling the level ampoules with liquid is carried out by about 95%. This is enough, To the air bubble was a little more water drops or equal to several such drops. It moves along the inner surface of the upper wall of the ampoule, without covering it all. The boundaries of extreme labels correspond to the edges of the bubble – with a strictly horizontal position of the ampoule, it is located between them.
The principle of the construction levels is based on the strength of gravity. Under the action of earthly gravity, a more severe and dense medium seeks to take the lower position. More light goes up. Air density is hundreds of times less than the density of water – the bubble is always on top, and not from the bottom or somewhere in the middle.
Pros and cons
Compared to hydrores The advantages of simple bubble levels are obvious.
- No hose required, which is easy to accidentally pierce or cut.
- I do not need a U-shaped tube, the presence of which makes the level more complex in storage and transportation due to its high height. Long and flat level easier to transport in a suitcase or case with other tools. Being packed in a cover or penalty with shockproof inserts, it is placed in the general compartment together with long coarse and boots, mounting, wire segments, metal scissors with long handles and T. D.
Compared to laser levels, liquid levels also have superiority.
- No power supply and special electronic sensors.
- Do not have to deal with a strip laser beam. His random eye hit is undesirable.
- Insensitivity to dust.
- Fog and daytime (sunny) light do not interfere with work.
Disadvantages of bubble levels are.
- Compared to hydraulic systems, in the hose of which can be pouring at least water from under the tap, the loss of technical alcohol when breaking the capsule is irrelevant.
- Bubbles, like laser levels, do not tolerate shaking, vibration, shocks, they can not drop them.
All levels undergo a mandatory verification at the factory. Using a new level gauge of any kind and variety, easy to learn old.
Views
Depending on the functionality, the levels are as follows.
- With one ampoule – only the correspondence of the plane is checked. Level may be pure vertical.
- With two – The device allows you to check and exhibit a horizontal and vertical plane.
- With three and more – mainly applied when laying pipes and supports at an angle of 30, 45 and 60 degrees. Three-level levels – the most common view.
The varieties of any of the levels presented above may be finalized as follows.
- There is a scale of ruler. Such level gauges are most common.
- Sophisticated frame form different from simple rack. Rake is performed more often from aluminum, but there are plastic and wooden levels. This allows not torturing the tool. But the level itself should not be heavier than several hundred grams of total weight.
- There are sprinkled shockproofs (under an ampoule) insertion.
- The windows can be rectangular, but more often there are level gauges.
- The lower line of the rail can be concave, which makes it convenient to exhibit pipes by level.
- Liquid tinted for measurements with low lighting.
- Magnets are mounted in the rail – this eliminates the drop in the level with a vertical and round horizontal surface, for example, from steel pipes or profile. Magnetic level literally protects itself from destruction when falling.
- The lens mounted in the eye at some distance from the ampoule makes it possible to faster and better determine the correspondence of air bubble central and side markers.
- There is an electronic sensor with display. Uses gyroscope, complements bubble-liquid level gauge. This device is a hybrid device that allows you to determine the displacement of the flask or ampoule in the rail.
Listed refinement and improvements make it possible to work quickly and clearly.
Review manufacturers
Among domestic manufacturers of construction levels, the following are well proved: Granite, “Ermak”, “Zub”, “Cobalt”, “Resanta”, “Union”, “Steel”, “Enek”. Top Out of Overseas: 888, Bosch, DeWalt, Eurotex, Kapro, Stabila, Schneider. All these firms regularly participate in the rankings of the best bubble levels with three measuring ampoules. Products complies with international gtostas. These lists are annually the largest online stores and famous masters, regularly speakers in conveyors about construction and repair.
Rating the best models
Over the past year in the greatest demand in Russia The following products are used:
- Kapro MINI-246 Capro;
- Kapro Plumbsite Genesis 781-40-60RM;
- Kapro Plumbsite Hercukes 986-44P-2500;
- STABILA POCKET ELECTRIC-17775;
- Stabila 96-2m 15854-80;
- Stabila 80A-2 16062-200;
- Stanley Torpedo Fatmax Pro Box XthT0-42495;
- Stanley STT1-43111-60;
- Stanley Fatmax XL 0-43-681;
- ADA TITAN 40 PLUS PROLEVEL 100;
- ADA A00393;
- ADA TITAN 2000 A00390.
Tens of manufacturers, approximately half of the firms transferred their production to China. Not all of them produce level gauges that meet modern requests to quality quality.
Tips for choosing
If you need a level gauge belonging to a small length, the optimal product is 300 mm long. It cope with most of the tasks associated with the interior. Such a level is useful when installing household appliances and furniture room furniture. Put a smooth refrigerator, washing machine, hang the shelf or rearrange the wardrobe – these are just a few areas of use of a small construction line. Alternative to the rush level of small length – flat-circular, not having a rack. But this checks only the horizontal – air bubble here should be in the center of circular (two-dimensional) markup. Previously, such a “horizontal” was widely used on ships.
For more serious tasks – smooth layout of tiles in a bath, toilet or in the courtyard, installation of windows and doors assembled – it will suit the average level at least by 600 mm.
The standard length of the large tile and sequencing ceilings of the Armstrong type in most cases has a side of a square of 60 cm. To align the door or window, it will be used and the usual cord plumb. And yet it is easier and faster to set a vertical window or door on a bubble level – it does not require expecting to calm the air bubble, as it would take from a plumbing cord or a water-level water column.
Finally, to level the screed and wooden clamping of the floor along the horizon, plastering vertical and sideways of the sizes of pipes on the diagonal will need large, the most accurate of the levels – from 80 cm to 2 m. An alternative here is only a professional laser level gauge or hydroelectric. For decoration of small rooms and sites, when laser levels in the nearest stores were inaccessible, and the work performed is urgent and urgent, then a large bubble level – your optimal choice.
When buying a level, be sure to check its main function – the accuracy of the horizontal, vertical or oblique (under a certain angle) line. The seller will adjust several levels of different lengths. If the buyer has doubts – the seller can compare the quality of bubble levels with any laser or hydraulic. You can adjust the previously purchased level of any type of bubble purchased at the moment. In this case, it is checked, whether the accuracy of the previous level gauge was disturbed, as far as he is still.
Operating Rules
After final verification (and settings, if necessary) you can use this product, t. E. proceed to preliminary measurements. Without calibration of the construction level Work with him is tatting significant errors in measurements, and this does not allow any construction or repair. What level to use – with three bubble polisher or prefer one or two depends on your current tasks.
Checking matching horizon
Many building levels of the lower price range do not possess a concave bottom surface. Because of her lack of error in measurements will increase significantly. Levels with the price above the average mark are deprived of this shortage – the applied side is already in complete readiness. The level is applied to the measured surface of this particular side, and not vice versa. If you apply an upper tool, not the bottom face, it is possible to make an ICOS even on the perfect horizontal or the same vertical surface.
Ampoule possesses two side marks, beyond which the bubble should not deviate. The most expensive levels have already four such marks.
One pair of opposite to each other marks is applied in the form of clear divisions, the second – already barely visible lines. The latter are required to detect the value to which the measured horizontal differs from flawless. To refine horizontal, for example, when installing a suspended shelf, make the following.
- Mark the desired point on the wall with a pencil or marker.
- Attach one of the ends of the level to just made mark.
- Turn the level relative to your mark so that the bubble in the horizontal capsule pointed to the perfect match of the horizon.
- Spend a line on the exhibited horizontal level.
- You can set fasteners and hang the shelf. She will hang perfectly smoothly.
Vertical exhibition
Suppose you want to put the new wall perfectly smoothly or not less shuffle it. The second in the vocabulary of the ampoule, installed on the level, is vertical. Relative to the surface of the earth it is horizontal. Apply the level to the vertical surface. If the bubble does not push himself down in the middle of the ampoule, on which there are marks – plaster or wall in this place is not perfect. The ampoule itself with the bubble, according to which the vertical is determined, should be on top, and not below – just as the horizontal ampoule should be as high as possible, but not vice versa. The level gauge is designed so that turning it significantly increases the error – do not put it up “upside down”.
Diagonal ampoule
If everything is clear with horizontal and vertical ampulus, then “oblique” is a kind of stumbling block for beginners. There are no difficulties here – this is a diagonal, passing at an angle of 45 degrees. It is necessary in places where you need to conduct a clear SCOS between two specific points. Replaces the transportation – no need to first cancel the value of half of the direct angle.
The level equipped with such a courier is called a memorial.
In the cheap “triple” level gauges, the tilter is rigidly fixed in the middle of the direct angle, in expensive there is an turn signal with a special scale, which allows you to adjust an arbitrary angle, for example, 57 degrees.
To install the desired angle, do the following.
- Turn the rotating flask to the desired mark, weakening the locking screws on the device.
- Install the ampoule to the desired angle using the ready scale. Turning the ampoule, delay it on each degree for increased accuracy of measurement.
- Apply the level gauge to the surface, for example, pipes installed at a specific angle. Air bubble at the same time must be in the middle of the ampoules – the one, in turn, is located horizontally.
After setting the right corner, swipe the line. It will be done pipe or design, the angle for which is already selected.
Stabila and Kapro building levels overview.
