Anyone use a "Swede" for grade checking.

[Dozerboy]

When I worked in SoCal several years ago a few of the guys work with had an instrument they called a Swede. It was just an steel 8 inch ring with three legs that came up a foot. They held a half inch pipe centered on the ring that had a 3 foot metal rod that slid inside that pipe that you would sit on top your blue tops. I probably didn't describe that very well.

Then 2 guys with tape measures would use it as a 3rd point and line of site to set blue tops. Worked great for sheet draining or even setting the crown in a road.

Anyways I thought I might make one this weekend and show these young bucks how to do things when we don't have GPS. Where are my old-school guys that know what I'm talking about. I will throw a picture up after I'm done making one.

 

[shaggy650]

I am curious to see this. I'm not old school but I'm glad I learned on lock levels and grade stakes before GPS

 

[Ronsii]

Use em' all the time Dozerboy

Sometimes it's just quicker than setting up a laser or when a laser is impractical, ours are made a bit different than your description... square base all aluminum... and zipties make for great offseting markers

 

[mitch504]

Boy, I am waiting for this, cause I am confused.

 

[Tinkerer]

I never had a Swede but i did have a Norwegian female grade checker ! I really did !
Pictures please of your Swede in use please. I never heard of it until this thread.

 

[JDOFMEMI]

What a great tool for things like parking lots!

Glad to see you out sharing the SoCal way of doing things.

 

[Ronsii]

What a great tool for things like parking lots!

Exactly!!!! would love to see a pic... Tinkerer

 

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . .
Can't quite get my head around this . . . yet. (grins)

Another handy and inexpensive gadget is the Yowie level. Essentially a hundred feet of clear plastic tubing filled with water and the ends taped to a couple of five foot moldings.

Get rid of all the bubbles, set the sticks side by side, mark the level and you are ready to go.

They were standard in the olden days for laying out contour banks and I have used them for shed pads. by-wash construction and for determining proposed high water line for dams with out having to clear a line of sight.

Cheers.

 

[mitch504]

Never heard the term "Yowie Level" but I've used a "water level" many times. Are you sure the guy telling you what it was called didn't get stung by a wasp while y'all were talking?

 

[Ronsii]

Have used water/yowie levels many a time... great for bvlos operation like scrub says and also up in skyscrapers where a regular level won't work because of building tilt

here is a hightech version of em' http://www.tigersupplies.com/Produc...dzMR9k-MNWR-d-XNCDp7Qr33lTyNJ2pOMZxoCbQjw_wcB

 

[mitch504]

Yeah, I've seen that, it looks cool. I just keep a couple of 2' pieces of clear tubing, one with male and one with female garden hose fittings. you just screw them onto any garden hose and add water.

 

[Scrub Puller]

xxxx

 

[Dozerboy]

Sorry guys I got 3" of rain so things have been hectic. 2 photos one showing how it would sit on a hub needing fill. I decided to add a set screw to hold the 3' rod inplace just in case.

 

[InsleyGuy]

I'm still confused. Blue Tops are also a mystery to me. For 40 years all I've ever seen/used are hubs and grade stakes.

 

[Tinkerer]

It has been about 40 years since surveyors set blue top stakes in my area.
Its just a 2"x2" stake pounded down until the exact desired grade is achieved on the top of it. Then it was painted blue. The problem with them is that they were located right where the cut and fill was. The operator HAD to cut or fill exactly to the "blue top".

 

[Dozerboy]

Blue top is just another name for a hub on finish grade. Generally anything blue is finish grade.

Let's see if I can explain this. Say you need to grade a parking lot and all you have is curb stakes. Well you want to put out some blue tops between your curbs without doing a bunch of caluations or setting up a lazer. You put the swede on a hub on one side guy1 stands at the hub on the other holding a tape measure at 3'. Guy2 puts hubs in the ground between the swede and guy1 holding a tape measure on top the hub. To check the grade guy1 uses line of site between his tape at 3' and the swede which is also 3' tall to read what the tape guy2 is holding is at.
Road crowns are are real easy. Say you have a 6" crown. Put the swede on one side of the road guy1 on the other and guy2 in the center of the crown. When guy1 reads guy2 tape at 2'6" then the road is on grade with a 6" crown.

 

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . .
Dunno, I'm not quite with it.

We had a system where all operators working close to grade had what we called 'eye levels', little flat sided optical jiggers (I think about 2x) that could be held (or taped) against a flat surface, they were about six inches long and carried in a belt pouch or on the machine.

All machines working close to grade had a piece of heavy 2x2 box section welded to the blade or bowl (at a convenient position and height) marked with graduations signifying height above the cutting edge. Cutting channel with scrapers the top mark I think was at twelve feet . . . that is to say the channel was eight feet deep, the bank was four feet high and the finished level was marked on an off-set at the outside toe of the bank.

Under more normal circumstances the operator or off-sider could hold the level against the 2x2 and sight over to the blue 'finished level' tape on the offsets which were set at a height to suit the machines . . . not too much bending over.

In practice with a few machines working, an off-sider with an eye-level and a lath would indicate height of cut or fill after each machine came through.

To determine the bottom, bench and bank heights of (say) that irrigation canal, the final trim grader operator had a slightly more elaborate instrument to take levels from the pegs and off sets when the centre-line was re-established.

How things change. I just had a look in Google images and the ones available these days all seem to have round housings . . . all I ever remember years ago were square ones so they could be held against the lath.

I might add that particular (sometimes unlikely) blokes became extremely proficient at cutting grade. We had a one eyed Kiwi bloke on a Johnstone 621 who didn't need a grader.

Surveyors were expensive and very hard to come by. All the original layout benchmarks, offsets and levels had to be maintained at all costs.

Sorry, long post. In these days of GPS an Laser probably boring all you blokes stiff.

Cheers.

 

[Dozerboy]

Not really boring, because GPS and lasers have their issues too. I spent a few hours with our GPS putting out some grade stakes today just find out the model builder screwed it up and everything I put in is wrong. I got 10 guys on this job and we're all sitting here spinning our wheels, because some Computer nerd with fat fingers can't double check his work.

 

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . .

Gotcha Dozerboy !

I have often wondered did those systems suffer glitches.

Cheers.

 

[shaggy650]

Blue top is just another name for a hub on finish grade. Generally anything blue is finish grade.

Let's see if I can explain this. Say you need to grade a parking lot and all you have is curb stakes. Well you want to put out some blue tops between your curbs without doing a bunch of caluations or setting up a lazer. You put the swede on a hub on one side guy1 stands at the hub on the other holding a tape measure at 3'. Guy2 puts hubs in the ground between the swede and guy1 holding a tape measure on top the hub. To check the grade guy1 uses line of site between his tape at 3' and the swede which is also 3' tall to read what the tape guy2 is holding is at.
Road crowns are are real easy. Say you have a 6" crown. Put the swede on one side of the road guy1 on the other and guy2 in the center of the crown. When guy1 reads guy2 tape at 2'6" then the road is on grade with a 6" crown.

So are you using a sight level? Or are you just lining up sight of the swede and the 2 tapes to see what lines up?