I Need A transit...Ideas?

What shouls I look for? How much does a good (but not great) set-up cost?

Thanks!

Scott

Okay, things to look for,
Weight. They shouldn't be light. Light means cheaper manufacture, not goo.
Make sure it swings in all its axis smoothly, any binding when the stop screws are open is bad.
Make sure the stop screws work well. If you're laying out a straight line, like a fence row you don't want it moving.
Make sure the fine control screws work well with no binding. Cheap models have control screws that only go so far, then you have to open the stop screw, wind the control screw back, close the stop screw again and then fine control more, they'll drive you nuts.
Good base, older sets are threaded so the whole bottom of the instrument threads onto the legs. Newer units have a threaded hole in the bottom that the legs attach to, the newer type is much more handy although the older ones can be had cheaper. Obviously check for any thread damage.

Readability. Newer digital instruments are great for readability but may need more frequent adjustment. They'll also be very finiky about being out of level if your just doing something quickie and not worried about real precision.
On an older analog instrument make sure you can read the numbers. If you buy an analog instrument go get one of those little keychain magnefying glasses, and keep it with the instrument. Ask me how I know...

Oh, btw, my old man is a Surveyor/Civil Engineer. I spent a couple summers and winters on his crews as instrument man, rod man, and data collector. When I was little I spent alot of time holding the rod for him before his company was big enough for him to have real paid assistants. I like surveying and frankly if it paid the money I like I'd probably be doing it now...

Oh yeah, livin the American dream...

Wait, what was I talking about?

Oh right, actually the money isn't really as important as I might have made out before. The real reason I didn't become a surveyor is because I'm not particularly good with math, which is why I'd probably never progress beyond a field surveyor running the instrument or holding the rod. I'm also not a good draftsman, even doing the "kid" jobs around the office. Fortunately I don't think Dad was all that disappointed. I was a good gopher and a very good instrument man though and I still help Dad from time to time when they're short handed.

I had a friend who built a peir and beam building that was 24' by 100' using a 4' level. I could see him fighting the siding so I took the water level over there and showed him that he was a couple of inches out of level. He argued and argued until I finally talked him into reblocking the building according to the water level. Afterwards, the siding went on perfect. A level has incremental error, which means everytime you move it, you keep adding the errors up, you don't have that problem with transits, lasers, or water levels. Handy tool to have if you do much leveling.

1) A contractor's level
2) A surveyor's transit
3) A laser level

1) or 2) require a helper. One guy holds the rod and sets the stakes, the other looks through the optics. Laser levels let you do such tasks as setting grade stakes or concrete forms or septic drain fields working by yourself.

All three will let you shoot straight lines, but only a transit will do it over a long distance up or down a hill (since you can change the elevation on a transit, but not on the other two).

Levels and transits will let you swing angles. Laser levels won't.

A transit is generally more accurate (and more expensive and finicky) than the other two. For leveling a building pad that is already within 4 feet or so of grade, there is no advantage to a transit over a level.

For setting fence lines, a string or a 300 foot tape works quite well. Most building layouts are done with tape measures and trigonometry.

For grading and leveling, the rotary lasers selling in the $300 range work really well. Get one with a laser detector, rather than one that relies on the visibility of the beam. With a detector, you get a 300 plus foot range even on a sunny day.