I can't seem to find a reasonably-priced laser device, say £50 or under, that will do both ... Measure distances Throw out a cross beam (horizontal & vertical, preferably self-levelling) ... and has good reviews in Amazon, B&Q, Screwfix, ToolStation, etc.
Is there such a beast?
I've seen, for example ...
Level:
I ended up paying £250. I needed better accuracy than the cheap ones have.
Bill
My level was about £100. I am OK with the accuracy but it's sometimes difficult to see the laser in a well lit room.
Don't think I've seen one that attempts to do, what are really, two unrelated jobs, beware of Cash Convertors who seem unable to tell the difference between the two functions.
The peril sensitive red sunglasses help a lot (assuming it is a red one). Green laser light is a bit easier to see.
A relaxed attitude to danger.
>
I am not sure the two functions are directly compatible. If you have a cross beam there will be a distance further along the beam which will be greater than the distance immediately in front of the device - unless the geometry of where it is being projected dictates that where the beam shows is at an angle to the projector.
I am happy to be proved wrong, but I would guess that the complaints of the amateurs misusing a combined device would outweigh the praise of the ones who would use it properly.
Jim
Or even "professionals". At the end of January had 3 quotes for whole house double glazing, including doors. One of the salesmen (not surveyor) managed to get the size of 4 windows wrong by -10% using a laser distance measure. The other two salesmen used a metal tape measure.
Oops ...
Measure:
Thanks for all the replies, I suspect I'll concentrate on the x-beam for now, but it has been driving me mad trying measure up for the new hot water tank and bath. You'd've thought at 6'4"/1.93m that my arms would be long enough, but what actually happens is that I hook the tape under something, walk to the other end of the distance, and, usually just as I'm leaning over to read off the distance, the other end pops out, the tape winds up, on one occasion when I was too slow to react even cutting my thumb sufficiently for it to bleed, and I curse and have to begin again.
Lately I'm beginning to feel that if others could see my movements I'd appear like a cartoon character or an extra in a Charlie Chaplin film! However, after reading here how some others are suffering (sympathies!) I really can't complain - my respiratory system is rather flaky and I bring up stuff each day, and I need glasses to read the tape measure, etc, and recalling things on demand like the names of books and films is rather hit and miss, but at least I can walk and drive significant distances, and my mind is still there, somewhere or other ...
You need a better tape with more stand out. then it will be self supporting over that sort of distance and have a proper lock so it doesn't retract suddenly. This one has a 3m stand out..
1) Better tape with a hook-end that has *teeth*? 2) Gaffer tape it down? 3) Small veneer pin/nail through hole in end?
It's not just the end that wants a blood sacrifice, it's the edges of the tape. Like a paper cut, but worse.
Not that there's anything wrong with buying a laser measure as a toy^Hol to make it easier when you have no assistant, my secondhand DLE40 has been a boon at times.
Hook the end of the tape over a piece of garden cane slightly less than the width of the room, or whatever, hold in place with a bit of tape then hold it againts the far wall using the cane, then measure the width where you are standing.
Always use a detector outdoors. Even when the laser is visible it's a lot easier with a detector.
Bill
I have not ever seen one - although there are some range finders that also include an inclinometer so that you can use them as a level of sorts. IIRC Bosch do one that plugs into a level to convert it into one
- however that gives you a more traditional level with range finding rather than a level line projector.
e.g.
The optics required for the two functions are quite different. As are the mechanics required for self levelling.
Last time I needed to do a fair bit of tiling I treated myself to one like this:
Last year I bought a Huepar BOX-1G from Amazon. It is compact, reasonably priced and more accurate than many much more expensive laser levels.
Don't bother with the green glasses - I don't find them very useful.
A matching detector is available for outdoor use.
John
I use currently a Stanley 3.5m PowerLock 33-215 tape, but find problems with it.
As already indicated, it's forever coming off from whatever I try and hook it on.
The catch plate on the end moves, as they all seem to do - I presume that is to offset for the thickness of the catch plate itself, about 1mm but nevertheless my measurements when translated into, say, a piece of cut timber, can sometimes correspondingly be 1mm out - annoying if it's a vertical stud, too loose and it's difficult to mount right for nailing or screwing in, too tight and it won't go into the gap. For this reason, I tend to prefer to measure from the 20mm mark, but of course that's not really possible when measuring a distance that your arms can't straddle.
More generally, I have previously been in the habit of thinking of Stanley as being a good brand, but some of the reviews that I've read recently on Amazon, B&Q, ScrewFix, and ToolStation for various pieces of Stanley kit knock it as being cheap, shoddy, and therefore failing early. Their x-beam levels are a case in point - some cheaper models, including the one I linked above, have a 100% or near approval rating for between 19 and 40 reviews, but the Stanley ones get as many as 50 thumbs downs in 200, 1 in 4 or 25% negative reviews.
Having read the negative reviews of these x-beam levels, they fall mainly into categories:
:-( Model specific - build quality, etc (no problem there, just buy different);
:-( Difficulty in getting the beam to be projected at 90 degrees to the wall at the height that the work to be done requires;
:-( Floating beam wobbles, while ... :-( ... difficult not to move beam off level when locking the device to stop the beam wobbling;
:-( Dimness of beam in good lighting.
What are people's experiences of these issues?
It is arranged so that if you pull on the tape, the zero point is on the reel side of the hook, and if you push on the tape (for internal measurements, for instance the interior of a drawer) the zero point is the far side of the hook and you have to add on the stated size of the reel to the measurement you see at the point where the tape goes into the reel.
Jim
Well it shouldn?t be. The catch plate moves (by the thickness of the plate) to allow accurate internal and external measurement.
If it didn?t move you?d have to compensate for the thickness of the plate depending on the type of measurement that you?re doing.
Are you adding your own correction? That would account for you being 1mm out at times.
Tim
As I supposed.
No.
A typical example is this. In the corner where the hot water tank will go, I've removed the old asbestos and plasterboard, leaving exposed a wall consisting of cross beams along the floor and ceiling, with vertical studs between them. However, I need some extra vertical studs, to provide backing to mount weight-bearing things on, etc. I measured the space between the top and bottom cross-beams three ways, top to bottom, bottom to top, and bottom of floor beam to top and subtracting the thickness of the beam. Finally I was satisfied that I was getting good agreement, measured the beam and cut it, allowing for the thickness of the saw cut, and yet it's about 1mm short, so the new studs are loose not snug between the two. It's not the end of the world, they fit better than many of the existing studs, but it's irritating none the less, because they will tend to move about while being fixed, and therefore extra care will be needed compared with if I'd been able to measure and cut them more accurately.
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