Dan,It does work! :up
They have to make those statements to protect themselves. It is not intended for use in legal trade in
other words.
It is probably better than the ones that brought our forefathers over from Europe! :
I went to the Harbor freight web sit that Anole posted and took a look at the alidade. I think it would work fine as a transit, even though they say it is only a decoration there is no reason that it would not work. The next trip to Harbor Freight I will buy one.
BTW, If you like the alidade, post a review on the HF website it would be helpful to those who want to purchase one. I am a big fan of reading all Amazon.com reviews on an item that I want to purchase.