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Starrett no.97

suzireiter

Plastic
Joined
Mar 18, 2018
Hello,

i bought a Starrett No.97 level in an auction in germany some days ago. Can someone tell me something about the specifications of this level? It is not very accurate. It is in a really nice condition, maybe i can use it in the future.

It was sold at Fifer & Beatty in Philadelphia, and i don´t know how this level came to germany... (and will never know, but this would be interesting)

Greetings from germany,
suzireiter
20180318_170202[1].jpg
 
I have one of those also and had the metrology/calibration expert at work replace the vial, I lucked out and he had a couple in his parts cabinet. When he was done he told me what the accuracy was but to tell the truth I don't remember what the exact figure was. I do however use it for setting up lathes and mills when first installed, makes it much easier to get it roughed in and many times it gives results that are good enough.
Dan
 
New Starrett 98 levels have a spec of about .005"/foot per graduation.

The Starrett 98 has a ground and graduated vial, while 97 has plain bent glass vials, and so I don't believe that there is any spec, or guarantee, on their sensitivity.
 
In the same auction, I bought a Stiefelmayer level with better accuracy. (0,35mm per meter and graduation, its about .005" / foot) They are not comparable, but for "rough" use, its ok, i think.

Thanks for your replies!
 
I'm not 100% but I believe these types were meant to be calibrated to the master (far more expensive) level and used in the shop to spare the master from being handled too often and getting damaged. Accuracy would depend on level of calibration.
 
I'm not 100% but I believe these types were meant to be calibrated to the master (far more expensive) level and used in the shop to spare the master from being handled too often and getting damaged. Accuracy would depend on level of calibration.

I don't think so, man.

The only level I could think of that would be called a "Master" is the more-precise .0005"/ft levels. And these are 10 times less sensitive.

Besides, you don't need to calibrate a level to another level-they can be used to calibrate themselves.
 
"Besides, you don't need to calibrate a level to another level-they can be used to calibrate themselves."

Exactly, it only takes a few minutes to calibrate even a "Master" level. Anyone can do the calibration, as far as I'm concerned, as long as you're not building rocket ships...

Brian
 
If you want to know how accurate it is, calibrate it first, then put a 5 thou shim under one end and see how much it moves.

Keep trying different shims to see what it does.

You don't have graduations, just a pair of centering marks, but you can figure out what it takes to move the bubble so that it is centered over one of the marks.

At that point you would have a rough idea of what the bubble movement corresponds to.

Steve
 
These are a semi-precision level. Good tools, but not near a sensitive as a Starrett 199. Like all levels, they are calibrated to themselves. That is, just tune to to read level or zero on a good surface plate, no matter which way you turn them, that is if the surface plate itself is "level".

JH
 
These are a semi-precision level. Good tools, but not near a sensitive as a Starrett 199. Like all levels, they are calibrated to themselves. That is, just tune to to read level or zero on a good surface plate, no matter which way you turn them, that is if the surface plate itself is "level".

JH

You can calibrate a level on a surface that is not level.

Just make sure that when you turn the level 180 degrees, it reads the same.
 
The precision levels that I own are master levels (no quotes needed as that is what they are called) and are sensitive enough that they can be thrown off by simple dust particles getting under them as well as the heat from your hand. Maybe that doesn't apply to these levels but outside of a clean room and special handling concerns, every time you pick up a level to rotate it back and forth trying to calibrate it by that method you're introducing error, however minuscule it might be. I'm sure that's meaningless to what most of us do but I really don't get the attitude in the posts above, the OP asked for some info on these and my belief was they were used as a supplement to the master levels, if no one in the history of machine tools has ever done that then my mistake, like I said I wasn't 100% on it. Enjoy your level and I hope you get some good use out of it.
 
The precision levels that I own are master levels (no quotes needed as that is what they are called) and are sensitive enough that they can be thrown off by simple dust particles getting under them as well as the heat from your hand. Maybe that doesn't apply to these levels but outside of a clean room and special handling concerns, every time you pick up a level to rotate it back and forth trying to calibrate it by that method you're introducing error, however minuscule it might be. I'm sure that's meaningless to what most of us do but I really don't get the attitude in the posts above, the OP asked for some info on these and my belief was they were used as a supplement to the master levels, if no one in the history of machine tools has ever done that then my mistake, like I said I wasn't 100% on it. Enjoy your level and I hope you get some good use out of it.

SO you're saying that anyone who doesn't agree with you should just shut up....?
 








 
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