Rabone machine level

Hi all

Over the moon when I won this on ebay.

Got it for a tenner, bargain I thought till it arrived today.

The glass phial is cracked and the bubble has escaped.

Tried to source a replacement but everybody seems only to have up to 11mm in diameter.

The Rabone tube has an i. D of 14mm.

Does anybody a, have one theycansell or b, have any idea where to get one from

Thanks in advance

I'd be inclined (sorry, not intended as a pun) to make up some tubular spacers and use the 11mm ones.

Or these people might be able to help - no connection, just searched for Rabone level spares.

Rob

I picked up one of these from Aliexpress in China. Don't know how the accuracy compares with the real thing but better than a broken one.

Peter

I think there was an article on baking precision bubbles in MEW in the early days...

The dia. of the bubble tube can be anything you can get. better if you can get one that has lines etched on it. Mounting a bubble smaller than the tube dia.is easy using some paper made into a sort of concertina form, folding it layer by layer till you get a sliding fit. cap/fill the ennds with plaster of paris making sure that the sealing point is clear and under no pressure from the plaster of paris.

See also the 2017 thread by Andrew Tinsley

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=129638

Well, it might be possible to bake one, but I think I meant "make"...

Thank you guys

That's a shame, I was looking forward to a recipe for 'bubble cake' ......

I can confirm that the paper concertina and plaster of Paris method of repair works very well indeed. I am afraid that I have forgotten the source of the new capsule, but one of the above replies gives a starting point.

The main problem was getting the end cap off without damaging it, putting it back on was almost as bad! It was a force fit on my example..

Andrew.