Self Leveling Laser

[Steve]

Not directly automation related, but...

A contractor I bumped into showed me one of these and said it worked really well. He said it was like $40. I could not find them anywhere local and they were around $90 all over online. I was going to get one at Sears for $90 that included a tripod but I came across this one on ebay. I sent them a question expressing skepticism at the price for a brand new unit and they replied within an hour with a rather short reply saying they are getting deal direct from B&D. It looks like others have bought these before from them and their feedback is pretty good so I went for it. IMHO $32 (with shipping and tax) is a steal for this thing. If you are doing any home projects requiring leveling (horizontal or vertical/plumb) this is a great deal.

Link

 

[Aaron]

Not directly automation related, but...

A contractor I bumped into showed me one of these and said it worked really well. He said it was like $40. I could not find them anywhere local and they were around $90 all over online. I was going to get one at Sears for $90 that included a tripod but I came across this one on ebay. I sent them a question expressing skepticism at the price for a brand new unit and they replied within an hour with a rather short reply saying they are getting deal direct from B&D. It looks like others have bought these before from them and their feedback is pretty good so I went for it. IMHO $32 (with shipping and tax) is a steal for this thing. If you are doing any home projects requiring leveling (horizontal or vertical/plumb) this is a great deal.

Link

gets good reviews...

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-BDL310S...e/dp/B0002TG1DE

thx for the tip!

 

[beelzerob]

And if you go to it via live.com, you get 8% back! woot!! I saved $2!!!!

Oh, and Steve....I hate you. Or rather, my wife will hate you. I swear, some day she's going to ban me from these forums because of things like this....

However, I can say that I've owned the B & D laser level for a while, but it's that kind you have to hold against the wall...and that's a drag. You either have to have someone hold it there, or use their gigantic pushpin and leave a hole in the wall. But I've used the thing quite a bit, so I'm happy to get one I can mount on a $5 tripod and be completely handsfree.

Thanks Steve. And I hate you. ray:

 

[beelzerob]

btw, when i got it, it said 15 left....so betters hurry.

 

[Aaron]

what is teh search for live.com that got you the link with the discount?



btw... they tried to charge me tax in AZ but yet they don't have a business license in AZ... seems like they are not 100% honest.

 

[beelzerob]

They charged me PA tax, but they say they're based in PA, so made sense to me.

I searched for "cheap ps3", and that'll get you 8%. It used to be that other search terms would get you more, but I dunno if that's the case now.

 

[Steve]

Some of the reviews say it won't work with some tripods because of the mounting screw or something, but that should be a relatively easy fix, but ymmv on that.

I got it with 16 left but this guy has sold these before, even a whole lot of 20 at once - so there may be more again - who knows.

And I think your wife will love you instead of hating you when the pictures, etc go up perfectly straight ray:

And fwiw, they do state they charge sales tax in most states, and even with the $2 take and shipping is $60 less than anywhere else, so....

 

[Steve]

Just to update... I got the laser and it was new as described and works great. Was an awesome deal.

 

[beelzerob]

Yup, ditto. Tripod screw isn't obstructed by anything either, and looks standard to me.

 

[beelzerob]

Ok Steve...I hate you much less than I did before.

This thing has been sitting on my garage shelf of the past 2 months, gathering dust. In the meantime, we've been building a pole-barn/pavillion for outside storage. It's got 10 posts, 5 on a side. To level the top of the posts, I had been using my old laser level to shine a line from 1 beam to another. Well, doing some final checking before cutting, I discovered the lines were totally off for some reason. I fiddled with it more, and it was just becoming exasperating.

So, just for kicks, I decided to try the new leveller.

It worked awesome. Even the little stand it sits on which I thought was kind of gimmicky was absolutely perfect. I simply pegged the stand into one of the posts, rotated the light around and adjusted it up/down to line it up with the mark on the post it was on, and then slowly rotated the thing around. It shined on all the posts a perfect line of where level was...so I just went around with a sharpie and marked it. PERFECT.

Because it shows a line so far around, another neat trick you can do with it is see the contour of the ground. We were having some drainage issues after massive deluge rains....so now we can see where the high spots are in a given area. This kind of gives a slice of a contour map.

The wife was quite pleased with the results, and it turns out to be a very rare "Hurray!" for spur of the moment deal purchases. Thanks for the tip Steve, even 2 months later.

 

[Steve]

Yea, its one of those tools that aren't use much, but when you have the need, they work great. I actually just used it to install cabinet pulls. The little plastic templates I had sucked, plus the panel was inset, so even if the template worked better, it would not be flush against the wood. So I just put the laser on the drawer where I wanted it so I had a perfectly level line then just used the template and put the holes on the laser line. Maybe not the best use of it but it worked great. Also use it to check for plumb in a few spots.