Mowing Grading laser recomendations?

[jenkinsph]

I have a Topcon RL200 2 slope with remote. Works great for field leveling with slope changes. Enter the slope you need with the remote and it is ready to go in seconds.

The receivers I use have a range of about 8 inches. That has has been plenty of travel for grading in my experience.

 

[Fallon]

Those of you with the rotary lasers, do you need to calibrate them or are they ready to go from the box. I read about one that to calibrate it, you had to turn it off, remove the batteries, make an adjustment, reinstall the batteries, turn it back on, check calibration and repeat.

And what about the detector? I've seen several that have different size screens and "two on grade settings" and "9 channel grade indication". I'm at a loss to understand those last 2. It seems to me that the screen size shouldn't matter since you're only looking for the laser beam, although the farther away you are the bigger the detection area the quicker you can find the beam.

I'm pretty sure its detector size & number of detector elements that's the relevant bit, not screen size. The bigger & more the faster & easier it is to get a bead on the line.

All the rotary ones I saw were self-leveling. You can check accuracy by marking a wall a ways out then rotating the laser 180. If the line matches the mark its self-leveling correctly.

 

[Fallon]

I have a Dewalt DWLRS 2V MAX Tool Connect Red Tough Rotary Laser Level on order. Not as cheap as the Bosch GRL500 kit & didnt come with a tripod or grade stick. It did do vertical lines though, which will help putting up some HAM radio towers & other upcoming projects. You can punch in a grade % on the Bosch remote or the Dewalt app on your phone (the laser reciever acts as a RF relay for the app so you can control it from 1,000' out). I mostly use Ryobi One+ gear, but my Dewalt grease gun uses the same battery, which will be a nice backup.

We'll see if I chose right here in a bit. I looked at the Topcons, but they were just a bit far out of my budget or mostly lacked the good grading options as well as vertical.

The CTS/Berger one is a good unit, except for the remote (not detector). Because of the remote limits setting grades on the laser was painful.

 

[spitter]

Been running large union jobs for the past 40 years and used every laser under the sun. TOPCON. Every thing else falls short in one way or another .:drink:

 

[jenkinsph]

I have a Dewalt DW8LRS 2V MAX Tool Connect Red Tough Rotary Laser Level on order. Not as cheap as the Bosch GRL500 kit & didnt come with a tripod or grade stick. It did do vertical lines though, which will help putting up some HAM radio towers & other upcoming projects. You can punch in a grade % on the Bosch remote or the Dewalt app on your phone (the laser reciever acts as a RF relay for the app so you can control it from 1,000' out). I mostly use Ryobi One+ gear, but my Dewalt grease gun uses the same battery, which will be a nice backup.

We'll see if I chose right here in a bit. I looked at the Topcons, but they were just a bit far out of my budget or mostly lacked the good grading options as well as vertical.

The CTS/Berger one is a good unit, except for the remote (not detector). Because of the remote limits setting grades on the laser was painful.[/QUOTE)
My first laser was á Dewalt and think it was a good bang fór the buck. About $400 non selt leveling 15 years ago. Still works good. Fór long distance shots the Topcon is much more accurate. Enter the slópe percent to three decimal places good fór about 1800 ft radius.

If the distance you are working are 200 yards ör less á less expensive laser will dó the job. Grading lasers are better suited fór field leveling.

 

[hawkeye08]

With some projects coming that I wanted a rotary laser for, along with my daughter and SIL building a house, I was watching CL and FC marketplace.. found an older DeWalt listed for $75, got it for $20 when it would not rotate. Turns out it just needed some help and has been fine since. One of the vials is cracked and useless, but fortunately, it has two in that axis, so just use the other one. It needs calibrating (I set it up and leveled it, then marked the level on a wall about 75' away, then rotated the laser 180 and did it again... had about an inch difference, so need to adjust that vial slightly. I only checked one axis.

The self leveling are tempting, but my budget doesn't go there. I have an indoor cabinet installer line level that self levels so may be using that to verify my DeWalt.. my advice on the rotary levels, buy name brand and make sure parts are available, should you need them.