Laser parts availability and what to buy now

[Randy88]

My small laser has been acting up, every once in a while it will level but not start up, so I thought I'd just take it in to the local fix it shop and get it repaired. Not sure right off what year it is, maybe 10 years old, might be closer to 8, time has a way of getting away from us all.

Well long story short after explaining what it was and wasn't doing, I was told to NOT bring it in, he knew what the problem was, just the parts to fix it have been discontinued and I might as well throw it away and go buy another new one.

First off that whole WTF thing came to mind, then questions about what make and model to buy and if the parts are still available for my larger better quality laser and the answer was, yes, some of them anyhow, but not all so it just depends on what's wrong with that one, well today, nothing for the larger laser, but what about tomorrow if something does go bad??

Have we really came to a complete throw away society, if someone would have told me someday you would go to town and buy a 10k laser and once the warranty is off, toss it into the trash I'm not sure I'd believed them...........but I guess maybe it will shortly come to that. Well my small laser is a Spectra 422, so I guess its not a big deal, pretty cheap by today's standards at only a few grand, but my 722 laser was close to 8k used when I bought it years ago now and the remote and all those controls are obsolete in that I was told.

So the search is on for a replacement laser and I guess repair parts and local fix it guys are no longer something to really consider when buying new, since everything is going to be obsolete before it needs repairs anyhow, so what's out there and what do you guys recommend for a dual slope laser, with maybe pipe capability, never had that before but might have a few jobs coming up that would require it, or buy two or three specific lasers.

I still have my older 722 spectra dual slope, so a single slope would do me just fine, they also make some really nice cheaper pipe lasers that would do whatever I'd need done and not have everything in one package so to speak.

Never considered other brands before, so what do you guys run and how do you like them?? Do you recommend multiple lasers or the newer all on one lasers that are combined, go cheap multiple or better quality. The really ironic part was, the 700 series which is much higher priced and one would assume better quality, only has a two year warranty and the cheaper 400 and 600 series has a 5 year warranty for about a third the money?

The best question of all is, does it really matter in five to ten years if parts are not available for any of them anyhow, once the warranty is off just toss them into the trash and go buy another one was my take on lasers today.

 

[tdrainage]

I understand completely with this issue - we have 2 of the 722 dual grade w/remotes and one older 945 - one of the 722's has an on/off button stuck in - took it to my laser guy here in east central illinois who has been doing lasers for 40 years and he told me forget it - parts not available - I am not sure the cheaper lasers have the distance and accuracy we need - I realize that most of the responses will be to get out of the stone age and go with GPS - we have some gps and have our own base station - for the work we do we just can't seem to justify the investment needed to go that route with everything - we got our gps equipment from mid-tech in northern iowa and they also work on lasers - am going to call and see if they can help with my 722 before we 'file' it.

 

[Randy88]

The whole GPS is great, but for working about five job sites at one time and only needing the laser or gps for maybe a few things isn't really feasible, not to mention a lot of places we work, there are not enough satellites to make the gps work at all and on many days we can't use even the hand held gps due to signal issues [bad weather], so then what, don't do those jobs or wait till a better day with enough signals to make it work.

We use hand held gps's to map tile lines and mark locations like connections or gas lines, fiber optic lines, phone lines, private utilities, plastic water lines, etc and several farms have voids in them, which "might" be overcome with signal boosters and some other things, but like lasers, how much high tech gear do you want to buy that will also be obsolete in a couple years with no parts available for that either. With the hand held gps stuff we do, we then download the maps onto the computer and print off a map then fill in footage's, distance markers and etc so we have a hard copy on file at all times, so when those cheap hand held units go bad and the next version can't be updated with our old data, we can still use paper maps as a back up with all the information we need decades later. Like I told one property owner, its not like we have only ever worked on your property so we can remember where everything is at, we work on hundreds of farms, acreages etc every year and its impossible to remember what we did even last month let alone ten years ago.

All this high tech stuff is great when it works, when it doesn't or is broke down, what then shut all the equipment off and take a few days, weeks or months off till you can get it fixed so you can go back to work again??

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but who can remember how to run all this stuff, unless you use all the features all the time and have all identical units, I've had to spend more time reading the manuals or finding the manuals to read them to figure out how to make the functions we seldom use even work, then the whole concept of "did I set it up correctly" is going through the back of your mind and are we doing this 10k job to grade or do we need to redo it because I'm not smart enough to set certain features correctly or better yet, is the unit really accurate even though it was calibrated recently after its been riding in my pickup back seat for the last six months bouncing over rough roads and fields? Its really bad when I carry a home depot 50 dollar level around with me as well to lay on the pipe from time to time to "check" to make sure my stuff is accurate and level or figure out the grade from the hand level so I can say, yes its good to go, after using my 8k laser and grade rod or machine controls.

A friend of mine has stuff set up somewhat on gps and he told me he too has a four foot level in his backhoe cab to check grade once in a while when he thinks something might be off. I joked with him on the tens of thousands of dollars he has invested and he still relies on a 50 dollar level and he said absolutely, he never leaves home without it. He also told me he has a longer level in one of the pvc compartments on his pickup as a double backup in case the one in the backhoe gets damaged and he wants to recheck grade. Like he said, how else do you check to make sure this high tech stuff is accurate while working.

 

[Bam Bam 171]

Bottom line is that even in the GPS era, lasers are still the best tool for some jobs. If there is a problem getting them repaired, that's important information.

 

[AzIron]

I am a huge leica fan but I have a really solid leica dealer here I dont have a dual slope leica tho but there low end lasers are indestructible I have 3 and they get abused a lot I just got a top con laser system for the skid steer not the biggest fan of how the dual slope laser sets up

I have had problems with spectra and not happy with the dealer so I wont go back