Topographic Abney Hand Level Minute & Degree Clinometer

i have written a text on mapping property and many land owners have elevation changes across the property and the truth is, you can't use a tape reel to accurate measure distance with elevation changes.this instrument can accurately measure distance down to within a foot or less depending on your skill to use it, just as a transit for a few hundred can do. but to shoot elevation changes with a transit required a lot more math and many many measurements and set ups. you can do that in seconds with this tool.i hope to have my book for sale here as soon as the copy right office finishes their magic.i have personally tested the instrument on flat, steep elevation, finding the instrument to be trustworthy, verified with tape measure and survey instrument measurements.

Not good at all will never buy from them again

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I bought an Abney level from a professional supply a few years ago. I was felling trees and could use it to predict within a few feet where they land. I also ended up using it for a couple landscaping projects and promptly lost it. I paid quite a bit more for the one I lost, but this looks pretty close and works the same. It's not at all obvious how to use it, and knowing a little trigonometry is very helpful, but the Internet will help you with both. Works best with angles in the 0-30 degree range and 45 is the practical limit. Yes, the scale goes to 60 or something but that's like a car speedometer that goes to 140. Doesn't mean the car will go that fast.

The level tube assembly on mine was loose in regard to the knob and angle indicator, so angles could vary over a range of about 3 degrees, a severe deviation from usefulness.Look at Amazon's image from the back side of the protractor piece, and you can see the slots of a phillips head screw peeking out from behind the level tube. Look at the top view and you can see there is absolutely no way you can tighten that screw without moving the tube level assembly out of the way.Fortunately, I was able to find a miniature nut driver in the basement, unused for decades. It was a quick job to remove one of the adjustment nut/spring/bolt, on the tube level assembly and swing the level out of the way. Tightening the phillips screw between the level tube assembly and the indicator didn't seem to help, so I dismantled that and drew several wrong conclusions that involved several more trips downstairs. I was correct that the level assembly wasn't seating properly on the square shaft from the knob, but I went astray from there. If I had simply re-loosened the screw, wriggled things around a bit, then re-tightened, repeating as necessary, I would have achieved the same result as I eventually did, with less consternation and confusion.After that, I adjusted the mirror assembly so the image of the level wasn't so kittywampus. Somewhere towards the beginning of all this, I trimmed a piece of sticky label, and put it on the part of the eyepiece that slides into the square body of the abney, so the eyepiece would stop falling out.After all that, I found that my ability to turn the level tube adjustment screws the correct direction had pretty much become random, so I will have to return to that task at another time. In the meantime, maybe I'll find (or make) a 5/32" open-end wrench.From other reviews, I suspect I got a bad example that I should have simply returned.I already knew that if I actually *needed* an abney level, it would have been worth paying more than this one cost. After my fixes and tweaks, this one is certainly good enough for my anticipated uses.On a side note, the level tube has a pair of lines about three bubble widths apart that may be useful over short distances as stadia lines. The stadia ratio as close to 16 as matters.I have been trying to attach an image showing the nut driver, my homemade open end wrench made of a piece of bamboo skewer jammed into a wire connector with a 5/32" slot, which makes adjusting the tube level waaaaay easier and quicker, as well as two alternate wire connectors which should be the same size slot as the one I used, but one is a hair too large and the other is a hair too small. No luck, but I'll try again later.

to quickly find any angle for any slope good little tool

When I received my item, upon use in the field, I find that the mirror that reflected back the bubble level within the viewfinder was bubbled providing a completely fuzzy view of that level as if the deposition process was total crap rendering the tool impossible to use. Also, even if that was perfect, the tool is so light, that you cant hold it steady enough to even get the bubble level. So decent idea but not practical or useful unless you have a perfectly steady hand and there is no wind.

Use it to bend pipe on the row