10' Box Beam Level 3

[MechEng13]

Anyone out there know of a supplier for off the shelf 10' Box Beam levels. I am currently trying to find such a monster and not having much luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I've tried googling and only found up to 8' levels.

TIA


Alan M. Etzkorn
Product Develpment Engineer
Wabash National Corp.

http://www.wabashnational.com

 

[pipewelder1999]

How about using a regular water level. It may not work for your application but I haven't seen many objects I couldn't check to within 1/16" or so over any distance.



Gerald Austin
Iuka, Mississippi

http://www.weldinginspectionsvcs.com

 

[MechEng13]

For the application that I am looking at I need basically a Straight Edge to measure the straightness of an 8'6" piece. The requirements is 1/8" Bow over the full length.

It doesn't seem to be the best way to do it, but right now they are having to relocate the 8' Level they are using after taking a first set of measurements. Which throws more error into it so we may not even be seeing the true measure of the bow in our parts.

I'm unfamiliar with the term "water Level"

Thanks,


Alan M. Etzkorn
Product Develpment Engineer
Wabash National Corp.

http://www.wabashnational.com

 

[MintJulep]

So do you really need a level, or just a straight edge?

Aluminum I beam of suitable stiffness should be pretty straight to start with, but if you need better you could have the flanges machined straight and parallel.

If you need to check level as well, you could attach the 8 foot level to the beam.

You can also check bow with a laser. Set it so that the beam just clears the high spot. Small gage block and a scale moved up and down the entire length and note where the beam hits the scale.

 

[pipewelder1999]

Piano wire,nylon stringandother similar items are what Iuseforinspection fabricated steel products.

Here is a brief description of a water level

http://www.weldinginspectionsvcs.com/misc/WaterLevel.html

(Not practical for what you are doing) but would check bow over much greater distances than strings etc.

Gerald Austin
Iuka, Mississippi

http://www.weldinginspectionsvcs.com

 

[byrdj]

A google for "precission straight edge 120"" found the following site "

http://www.subtool.com/stcat/st_pg25.html"

that list a SE-120-TSB which is 120" tool steel for $500 (tolerance 0.0005"/foot)


the starret aluminun straight edges are designated "ASE-inches" I think their longest is 96" though.

 

[rhodie]

A granite gage plate and a height gage would work.

I've seen 6'-8' blocks go for rather cheap prices (not including shipping costs) on websites like e-bay. Maybe you could find something similar for your use.

 

[MechEng13]

MintJulep, PipeWelder, byrdj, and rhodie,

I appreciate all your good suggestions. One of the other concerns I have is with the total weight of whatever I end up using. All I really need is a Straight Edges that has a straightness of .012 over 8'6" of the 10'. I am working with our quality guys for possibilities. We may be able to use a Blocks and Line setup. We need to make this easy enough so that the operators will use it to make the check on the specified number of pieces. This will be an in process check so that adds another realm of issues into the equation.

Again thanks for all the good suggestions, I am looking into what will be the best.

Thanks to all.


Alan M. Etzkorn
Product Develpment Engineer
Wabash National Corp.

http://www.wabashnational.com

 

[unclesyd]

Adding to MintJulep's{/b] suggestion of an Aluminum I beam there is the AL 4" electric cable trays, the one with all the holes, that are readily available and are very light weight. If you can get one out of a new bundle you will normally find it extremely straight and strong enough to span 11 feet, on edge, with less than 1/64" sag.

 

[MechEng13]

unclesyd,

Thanks for the response. However I need to have Straightness of no more than .012" over 8'6" span.

I have gotten with one of the quality guys, used to make the parts we want to check, and we are going to look at some simpler ways to do it, using some of the suggestions from this post.

Thanks,


Alan M. Etzkorn
Product Develpment Engineer
Wabash National Corp.

http://www.wabashnational.com

 

[pipewelder1999]

I like the cable tray idea. Light and good rigid cross section too.

Gerald Austin
Iuka, Mississippi

http://www.weldinginspectionsvcs.com

 

[griffengm]

Alan,
Go, ask your punch operator, Butchie Boy, how to do it. It'll be done in the time it took to write this.

Griffy

 

[tygerdawg]

You might consider a laser alignment rig such as used on machine tools. You would have to adapt it to your needs I suspect. A google search turned up this example company:

http://www.pinlaser.com

TygerDawg