An engineer's spirit level is generally used to level machines, although they may be used to level large workpieces on machines such as planers. Spirit levels are also used in building construction, by carpenters and masons.
The upper image is a plain precision level used in the engineering field to level machines or workpieces, the lower image shows an adjustable precision level that has an accuracy of 1:10000. The adjustable nature of this level can also be used to measure the inclination of an object.
The accuracy of a spirit level can be checked by placing it on any flat surface, marking the bubble's position and rotating the level 180°. The position of the bubble should then be symmetrical to the first reading.
Both levels have a "vee" groove machined along the base which enables the level to sit on a round bar while remaining parallel with the bar's axis. They also have a smaller cross level to enable the second axis to be roughly checked or corrected.
While a precision level may be used to check and correct the twist in a machine (or workpiece), its presence does not necessarily need to be corrected.
- A machine such as a mill or lathe does not have to be perfectly level to operate correctly but may in fact have a known twist introduced to the machines bed. This twist is often introduced to ensure that a worn lathe turns parallel work, by realigning the bed (that is worn) to the spindle axis (unworn).
- Leveling a ship's lathe would be unnecessary due to the nature of the ships base - floating on water. Correcting any twist in the bed however would be essential for accurate work to be reproduced from the lathe.
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Famous quotes containing the words engineer, spirit and/or level:
“A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible. There are no prima donnas in engineering.”
—Freeman Dyson (b. 1923)
“Oh! thou clear spirit of clear fire, whom on these seas I as Persian once did worship, till in the sacramental act so burned by thee, that to this hour I bear the scar; I now know thee, thou clear spirit, and I now know that thy right worship is defiance. To neither love nor reverence wilt thou be kind; and e’en for hate thou canst but kill; and all are killed. No fearless fool now fronts thee.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Young children learn in a different manner from that of older children and adults, yet we can teach them many things if we adapt our materials and mode of instruction to their level of ability. But we miseducate young children when we assume that their learning abilities are comparable to those of older children and that they can be taught with materials and with the same instructional procedures appropriate to school-age children.”
—David Elkind (20th century)