Builder's Level/Optical Level

Our farmland has a slope to it and I want to shoot some elevations to work out the grading and drainage. I need a basic builder's level or optical level. Something like this:


Or maybe this:


The only ones I've found so far are at ToolPro. The cheapest one they have is 9K baht. That's for a nice auto-leveling Bosch unit but that's not only 30 or 40% higher than the same unit in the real world, it's overkill for what I'm going to be doing. I was hoping to find something more basic for around 2-3K. Has anyone seen these things anywhere else?

Your options are limited, only 3 other places that I could think of looking that may have what you're looking for would be:

Global House
HomePro
HomeMart

Yeah, I've checked the usual suspects but haven't tried to see if they could order anything. I ordered some doors from Global once and what came in were doors that were too warped to sell at whichever branch had sent them. Thought I'd see if there was something somewhere else first.

fremmel,,,,,,,,,,,,,, do what people have done for years and get yourself some yards/meters of clear vinyl tubing (maybe half inch), add some food coloring to water, pour into the tube and go to work,,,,,,,,,,,, works like a charm unless you're working on a huge tract of land.... cheers,,LL

fremmel wrote:builders level.
Or maybe this:

optical level

Looks fancy ... looks high-tech ... it involves calculations ... it's a foreign brand.

only 30 or 40% higher than the same unit in the real world,

Ahhh, Amazing Thailand.

Fremmel that sounds like an awfully cheap price for the unit you showed if it includes the tripod and stadia rod. Have you considered a hand level? I used one for years for seat of the pants engineering, even laid out a 55 mile long road in Wyoming to our mine site. Used it to do a mass balance (cuts and fills). We had a ball. They should only cost about 40 bucks or so. The rub is I don't know if they are available in Thailand. Sadly I sold mine at a garage sale for ten bucks when I left the States. One of the many things I wish I had brought over, but then I would have needed a large cargo ship.

Unfortunately I have no idea where to look in Thailand for this kind of stuff. Here's a website with some pictures and prices.

Ooops! Sorry, forgot to add the url:

http://www.mytoolstore.com/berger/handlev.html

LL, I've been using the "water level" for grading around the house but now I need to do some runs of 150 meters or so. 75 meters middle to end is a bit long for doing it that way.

JimboLV, no that price doesn't include everything. That's the price I found here on the web for just the unit itself that ToolPro carries. I put in a picture with it mounted in case someone had seen them but weren't familiar with the names. The tripod was another 1,500 baht at ToolPro and I already have a rod.

I've never used a hand level but it looks like it'd be better for doing long runs like in road work. The land we have has a compound slope and I need to do a topo for contour plowing and side drainage. It seems like a tripod would make that a lot easier. The kind of unit I was hoping to find is something like this.