I've not been tempted to get one of these Laser Level Kits before, the one's which shine a horizontal or vertical laser beam on a wall which can be used to mark/drill.
Anyway, I relented this morning when I saw that Homebase had one on special offer - £19.99. I was on my way to hang some pictures for someone and thought "what the heck".
I'm now a convert to these things - it was very helpful to make sure pictures were lined up properly. The one I've got is a bit poxy, but it's good enough for what I need.
Just thought I'd pass it along in case others might have been tempted.
The one I bought from Homebase looks identical to this one:
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didn't have the goggles, but apart from that it looks identical and I reckon it's the same model. I got a hard carrying case as well.
Basically the thing on the top is a bog standard spirit level, at one end is a small laser LED (?). When set up that LED squirts out a single dot of light onto the wall.
The kit comes with two inserts which can be shoved into the LED hole. One is a prism which turns the beam 90 degrees (can't think of a use for that, but it's there if I need it). The other is a prism that splits the beam into a long thin line on the wall.
With the latter you can twist the prism to give a horizontal or vertical line on the wall (and actually any angle in-between if you need a line at a funny angle). Setting that line up is a little tricky I found, the best way is to line it up on a horizontal/vertical surface first, then change the elevation up/down
The head of the tripod twists and raises/lowers, and comes complete with a small bubble level so that you can stabilise the head to fully horizontal.
I had to install some picture hooks in a hallway today - it was a piece of cake offsetting the tripod legs so that it could stand on two steps and shine the goods onto the far wall.
BTW, if you go to Homebase to pick one of these up you may find they are marked on the shelves as £29.99. When I got to the checkout I was charged £19.99. Naturally I didn't feel the need to complain :)
I'm quite pleased with this purchase - as I said earlier I had resisted the temptation but when I got a job where I could make use of it I succumbed - it was a good buy as far as I am concerned. It would most likely be very useful when wallpapering to give the vertical line for the first sheet, but would be great for shelving and other things where you need to line things up over a fair distance across a wall.
Class 1, fully enclosed and iterlocked, or low enough power in visible wavelength that blink reflex will protect....
Take a class 4, MW power laser and fully enclose and interlock it becomes a class 1 installation, there are other factors, but basically class 1 is considered to be safe by virtue of power level and frequency (wavelength) of output, or engineered (by enclosure and interlocking) to be safe. There's a lot more to it, but I can look it up at work if you want... I work with enclosed class 4's, but they are NOT fully interlocked so they remain class 4's, and as they are deep UV or far IR the beams are not normally visible, so you treat must them with respect... BTW "red" laser pointer's are considered safe, you blink, no matter what police officers etc may say, the "green" ones however are often class 3 and have also been found to be class 4, thats far more worrying!
I bought the Wickes one. Was very handy when block paving a front driveway to mark out the finished level on the walls each side. Don't know how dangerous the laser is to your eyes though. Anybody know?
Had my "toy" laser level some months now. Waited for them to get down to £19.99 at one of the sheds (Focus DIA ?). The biggest problem is the relatively poor swivel head on the tripod. From what I've read, Stabilo do a much better one but it's about £180.
At these power levels, we're supposed to be protected by our involuntary "blink" reflex. I haven't tried it, and don't intend to.
As explained elsewhere. There are also rotary level lasers which are much easier to use for getting a level line. These have also dropped in pric erecently and Makro are selling them for around £20 each. The laster levels referred to in this post caost about £12 with tripod, goggles, target etc. At that price it's cheaper than the sheds sell a non-laser level of similar quality.
I've seem these being used by fitters installing a suspended ceiling for us some years back. Very impressoive and the ideal tool for the job. Hung it in a corner and used it lo align the wall brackets.
Don't really need one but at those prices I'll get one to play with
Trouble may be that in a domestic environment I think one is oft times better algning to existing fittings rather than just being level. If the ceiling is slightly out then the curtain rail is going to look wrong if ite level and the ceiling isn't .
AFAIK it doesn't work like that. I think Class I means the laser is enclosed in some kit or other (maybe visible or invisible radiation). Whereas in Class II (and above) the beam may be directly visible. Whatever the case it is obviously a bad idea to look into the beam directly or even via some sufficiently good reflecting surface. The laser will still get into the eye of course (unless you can anticipate and blink faster than c)! These are only my opinions. All advice at you own risk. Do not drink the contents of this battery etc.
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