Off to the races. Getting fully setup to run 3D on my motorgrader.

CM1995 said: The Cat box blade set up we have with auto laser controls would slay that sand. We are able to get 1/2" tolerance easily with DGB - dense grade base which has particles up to 1.5". Once you figured out the compaction ratio of the sand it would be very easy to grade. Click to expand... I doubt I'll see it in action. I guess they had to order another harness. I wish I had the cash to throw around. They were going to buy the box and grade control. And the fuel man just told me they bought a new bobcat and system. Something about the machine having a 9 pin connector, and the grade system needing 22. Good toy for one of the young lads

cuttin edge said: I doubt I'll see it in action. I guess they had to order another harness. I wish I had the cash to throw around. They were going to buy the box and grade control. And the fuel man just told me they bought a new bobcat and system. Something about the machine having a 9 pin connector, and the grade system needing 22. Good toy for one of the young lads Click to expand... Well if you get to see one in action it's way more than a toy - It's a money maker.

cuttin edge said: View attachment 343380 grading sand today. They put it on with the d4. Did a perfect job. But someone messed up the grade, and it's all 2 inches too high Click to expand... Did you keep it 2" high or need to cut it out?

No I cut it all down story is that it was supposed to be an inch and a half high. Compacted, then I could cut an inch or so off. Tech raised the grade , then the rod man raised it again. In the morning, they will soak it, then roll it. Then I will cut and fill as needed. It's pretty close They want to start laying down chill lines monday

cuttin edge said: cut it all down story is that it was supposed to be an inch and a half high. Compacted, then I could cut an inch or so off. Tech raised the grade , then the rod man raised it again. In the morning, they will soak it, then roll it. Then I will cut and fill as needed. It's pretty close They want to start laying down chill lines monday Click to expand... Interesting. My favorite thing in life, is to do something once, then get to do it again for free... Yesterday was a 15 hour day. Today is the same. Yesterday they had such a hard time everyone was too shot out to do it again tonight. Holding the pour until tomorrow night. They are pushing the size of the pours to the max. Grade was so far out yesterday , after I graded it for hours and came to the conclusion that I was not going to hit grade. I called for a dozer at 5 pm, of course you can imagine how tired the dozer man was at that time. If I had taken the time to shoot the sub grade before jumping in the grader. You think you can get it with a back hoe, then it turns out to be 5"s too high and super hard. It is really the GPS system being a royal PIA. Today they were ready no body wants to stay till dark. 2 dozers and a hoe on stand by. I shot grade and guided them to target. Superintendent asked me how's the grade. I said I'll know in 15 mins. 30 mins later how's the grade.. I need 15 more minutes.... I thought he was coming off the buggy to get me.... Anyway 45 hours in, in 3 days with an additional 11 hours of travel. Rain is going to catch us again so off till next week.

Today I did a cool trick with the software. My support crew got pulled and had to help finish last night's pour. So grade stakes and lines were not set. I was stuck with out what I needed to grade the area. I was able to take the site plans and do an as built model. I then made an a line which matched the existing pour. I moved the line 72' out and dropped it 1%. They wanted me to grade a 2d slope and 3d contoured area. With different concrete thicknesses. I divided this line into 50' points and bam. I now have my duel area ready to grade. They got to me around 1:00 and set stakes. I was within .01 pretty cool.

I guess the guy installing the unit on the bobcat can't get the bobcat and the blade to communicate with each other

Georgia Iron said: It is really the GPS system being a royal PIA. Click to expand... It's not the GPS system, it's the people operating it. Garbage in = Garbage out. Now that can be faulty equipment or the more probable reason the humans operating it. 5" too high is human error be it the operator in the seat, the one who built the model or whomever set up the base station and localized the site. cuttin edge said: I guess the guy installing the unit on the bobcat can't get the bobcat and the blade to communicate with each other Click to expand... I have so many jokes about Bobcat in general but this one made me laugh.

CM1995 said: It's not the GPS system, it's the people operating it. Garbage in = Garbage out. Now that can be faulty equipment or the more probable reason the humans operating it. 5" too high is human error be it the operator in the seat, the one who built the model or whomever set up the base station and localized the site. I have so many jokes about Bobcat in general but this one made me laugh. Click to expand... They love their Bobcats. They even have an old girl at the crusher cleaning under belts

Are you running gps and uts, or is someone else running gps? I agree with CM1995 GPS typically offers a tolerance of +/- 1.5 to 2.5cm (0.6 to 1 inch), while UTS, used for final trim and fine grading, can achieve tolerances of +/- 3-6mm (0.12 to 0.24 inches). I Google that cause I could remember the exact numbers.

Georgia Iron said: View attachment 343457 Click to expand... That is one roller coaster of a curb line.

smifwal said: Are you running gps and uts, or is someone else running gps? I agree with CM1995 GPS typically offers a tolerance of +/- 1.5 to 2.5cm (0.6 to 1 inch), while UTS, used for final trim and fine grading, can achieve tolerances of +/- 3-6mm (0.12 to 0.24 inches). I Google that cause I could remember the exact numbers. Click to expand... They use there own GPS. On most sites I check the accuracy of gps and it is about 2"s. 1" up or down. As buildings are built up it interferes with the system. Corners and close to walls can throw it off. Sometimes the base stations won't stay on and connected and they just "grade it close" this can cause it to be 5 or 6" off. Also more than likely they don't worry to much about it because they know someone else is doing the final work. They probably just simply don't do a 100% job. Problem is when the soil cement gets hard even the dozers can't get it to cut without lots of passes sometimes with only the edge corner ripping a small area. In some places they are putting it down twice at 65 lbs. On the last few pours maybe 5 or 6 acres the foreman constantly was having problems with the base station. They had to shut it down and he just graded by me directing him. Soil cement work needs either a grade checker working with good equipment or a fine grader running with the crew. It is much harder to fix the grade after the fact and the main motor grader operator can get over stretched and not be able to recut or add if it gets slightly off, because there is not enough time to do it if they are mixing a lot. It is an art to get it right, especially considering it can swell. If it gets hard to fast it will grab the blade and scoop out areas. Basically it starts to cut but over cuts because it breaks threw the hard top as it is drying.

If you are curious, think of an inch of dirt this way, that is about 134 cubic yards of material or 1"s thick on an acre 43560 feet. That is about 270,000 lbs of dirt that needs to be moved. So shifting it, digging it up and or adding just an inch of material can be a big job to tackle in 1 days time. When it gets to be 2 or three inches it is an ordeal. Skid steers with grade box's can fall behind and that is why they are a second choice on these sites to a motor grader. I can cover larger areas faster and more accurately.

I love when we people say oh it's only a insert low number. I do some work for people and I know many contractors that don't see value in the grade controls. How much time/effort/labor/ machine and man hours, fuel wear and tear not just on the machine but the operator it takes to move that extra inch and add all that up over a year you could have easily paid for the grade controls. I am working on a state park, they are building camps sites and they are doing everything with lasers and math all at prevailing wage. It blows my mind. I bought my 2D system to save me time and separate myself from the competition knowing that I would be limited in what I can do with it. I primarily do underground utilities with a focus on power. If I was laying pipe on a slope all day I would definitely have went the gps route instead of the 2D, catching the laser ever time you move is very inefficient but it is better/cheaper than having a guy there all day checking grade or having to get out and check myself. I bought the grader blade to open doors, and to be more accurate grading, I could spend all day trying to touch this and touch that and would still probably not be where I should be and get hit with a charge back from the concrete guys without the grade controls. GPS and UTS was just too much to spend just to be able to say I have it without having the work lined up to pay for it. But with it I am way more productive than my counter parts and I am accurate, no rework, if I was there it is at grade/depth. I am now trying to meet like minded individuals/companies that see the value in it and this will ultimately help me expand my 2D into 3D

smifwal said: I am working on a state park, they are building camps sites and they are doing everything with lasers and math all at prevailing wage. It blows my mind. Click to expand... I'm wondering how many use a reversing rod for grading. It saves so much time and there's no math involved. No need for calculations. I see they're called direct read or true elevation rod.

I will have to look that up, there are only 2 contractors on this job the electrician (I am doing his digging) the other company is doing everything, this thing was basically a forest, they are tearing out trees, grading(it is not a flat site) sewer, water, concrete and asphalt. At any given time there is a dozer, a 963 a 317 hoe and 2-3 skids all running around with tape measures and grade rods. There are survey stakes with C/F but... I understand that GPS is expensive but they do these all the time or stuff that is similar and you don't need it on every machine but a base,rover and data collector for lay out would speed things up and watching the foreman trying to do all this and second guessing himself or trying to remember months later is agonizing. But his boss obviously doesn't know about the stuff or is unwilling to invest in it. And I am not saying go broke trying to get set up, which is what your salesman will try to do to, telling you all that you CAN do with but if you don't have the jobs that you need it or can make do without it but these cats are doing this daily and if you pencil to paper it would work out real quick in their case and could help them win more bids because of the efficiency that comes along with having it.

I'm slowly getting sucked into using metric more. Government work has been metric for years. And I've always made the conversions in my head, but all the surveyors are young and use it. I still have a survey rod in inches. And a metric standard combo tape

I also am trying to switch, I was a flooring installer by trade and some of my tools from the UK and Italy that had rules on them only came in metric, so I have been using it on a small scale for years I can glance down at a 1/16 rule but a 1/32 scale I have to stare and sometimes count but with the metric system much easier to glance and if you a mm of it isn't the end of the world even a cm in certain situations is ok. I was trying to learn 10th when I first got the system,I should have focused on the metric system but like you there are people that are not using it unless they have to, so figured I better get proficiant in both. Earthworks has both and now that I am digging all day I have been setting up in metric to just keep looking at it. It is when I have to switch depths that I have to double check but I think once I feel comfortable with it,it will be faster and easier to convert

Can't believe you guys are using inches in the civil construction world. All we use is tenths. Much easier to calculate. All the civil plans that come across my desk are in tenths of a foot. Super easy to convert inches to tenths and after a while it's memorization. Just divide the inch by 12. 6" is .5' for example.

I bought myself a couple of engineers tapes with them on there with the inches as well. I have a few tapes that have metric and imperial and a couple from the UK that only have metric. And some folding rules that have metric only but I don't use that in the excavation side of things I downloaded these when I got my grade controls I have to reference them once and a while or I will use the calculator like so.