Last year I was given Brand new Starrett 98-8 level by a friend of mine, in exchange for making him something. Turns out the vial was cracked, and I'd like to repair it. Amazon wants $70, the lowest I've found is Transcat @ $28 BUT they have a $50 min (plus shipping). Before I order $22 of stuff I don't need, does anyone have another source that might be somewhere in the middle. I've found lots of posts, and video about replacing vials, and they always quote around $15-25. I know that's American $$, but it's a tough belt to bite when your simply getting pounded for being Canadian......
Starrett has not responded yet, but I'm not holding my breath for a better price.
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Ya, A little bit far away for an afternoon pop over to split the loot lol. I'll keep searching, and will post up if I find one cheaper, but I'll probably just order from Grainger.
My brain works slowly but it seems to have turned on tonight. I believe I saw somewhere that the vials are held in with plaster of Paris so a good soak in warm water or perhaps an ultra sonic cleaner and it should pop out.
@jorogi said - My brain works slowly but it seems to have turned on tonight. I believe I saw somewhere that the vials are held in with plaster of Paris so a good soak in warm water or perhaps an ultra sonic cleaner and it should pop out.
I once had the side cover off and the vial was indeed potted in this whitish stuff. Plaster would make sense, I will take side cover off and confirm what is. At the same time I will try to measure the length of the vial.
Dan, if it fit your 98-8 you are welcome to have it for the shipping cost.
We have an advanced production facility which enables us to produce extremely high quality vials in small or large quantities at very competitive prices.
@jorogi said - My brain works slowly but it seems to have turned on tonight. I believe I saw somewhere that the vials are held in with plaster of Paris so a good soak in warm water or perhaps an ultra sonic cleaner and it should pop out.
I once had the side cover off and the vial was indeed potted in this whitish stuff. Plaster would make sense, I will take side cover off and confirm what is. At the same time I will try to measure the length of the vial.
Dan, if it fit your 98-8 you are welcome to have it for the shipping cost.
Thanks for the offer. I meant to go out on Sunday and find my level to measure the vial, but one thing lead to another, and I ended up completely rearranging 1/4 of my shop, and forgot to do it lol. I'll check tonight and let you know. I think i'd prefer the stock Starrett one with graduations though.
Yours has me thinking about doing a bronze casting project to create an whole new level body to suit the nice brass case around it. < That's why I have scope creep on so many of my projects.....
Yours has me thinking about doing a bronze casting project to create an whole new level body to suit the nice brass case around it. < That's why I have scope creep on so many of my projects.....
You got me thinking for a minute, that would look so nice . But then realized, I am trying to get ride of it to substract a project from my list. If I would not already have a precision level, it would of made for a nice shop project, especially a base in bronze.
Talking about casting a level body, made me remember a long lost project from a couple years ago. I'd bought a bunch of plastic level vials, to make a cast square/torpedo level combo idea I had, but never got around to finish printing the patterns and casting it. I wish I could complete projects as fast as I think of them.
I just ordered the vial from grainger. still back ordered, so it'll ship when it ships. Then I'll stick it in the box with my level, and in 5 years might get around to actually replacing it..... lol
I replaced the vial tonight. All went smooth, not really that difficult at all if anybody is on the fence about it. Care and attention to prevent marking and wrecking the tube, but wasn't that bad. To start off I grab one end in a soft jaw, and the other end with a taped up adjustable wrench and twisted to break the ends free. Then some twisting while pulling up wiggled the end out. Then I just ran some water in there, and with a scriber worked the plaster out a little at a time. Less than 5 minutes had the entire broken vial and all the plaster out. Then I took a steel rod inserted up the tube, and with a firm grip hodling it, knocked the rod on the table a couple times and the other end plug came out. They're a slip fit until the last 0.1" or so, so once you get them started they don't require a lot of force to come out. This is a newer one, the older ones might be different.
All disassembled, I cleaned the tube out under water and bristle brush, then cut a clean piece of white cardstock to fit in behind the vial. Once I was happy with the way it looked during a dry fit, and cleaned the vial with class cleaner, I carefully aligned the vial and taped it's position. Then dammed up around the edges with clay so the plaster wouldn't run out (vial smaller than tube which was surprising). I ran a couple wraps of tape around the tube at both ends so I could lightly stand it up in a vice and pour the plaster in, one end at a time. Letting it set about 30-40 minutes before flipping and doing the other end. After letting the last end set up for about 30 minutes, I fit the end caps and cover back on, and pressed them together with the mill vise, and reassembled the whole thing. I'm sure the plaster was a little wet, but there's enough room for moisture to escape around the tub/vial opening as it cures completely.
I'd watched a couple youtube videos of guys doing this before, so kinda knew what I was into before starting. Had an idea anyway. I think the passage of time makes these more difficult than mine, as mine is a relatively new one. It's also different than other I've seen where the cover tube doesn't have the little spring shims, they've switched to what feels like a ptfe sheet wrapped around the ends to provide some drag. This is typical of modern Starrett stuff where it has the looks, name and price tag of old, but the feel is different, and holding them blindfolded against old stuff you could pick the new ones out 100% of the time. I'm sure the ptfe tape was an improvement in they're assembly process, they're service process, and they're bottom line, but you can tell the difference in how this one feels, compared to an older one for sure.
I didn't set out to make a post, or document this, aside from the note about the ptfe tape. but was actually surprised when I looked back at my phone and realized I'd taken a few, so here they are.
I'm into this for about $50 and 2 hours of time plus doing a buddy a favour for which I wasn't expecting anything, but he gifted me this that was brand new, but broken. There was some tarnish on the base though. A light stoning took care of that. I have not calibrated it yet. Will give it a couple days for the plaster to fully setup, and then do that.
(lol, I'll leave this up in case anyone else needs a source)
