All Laser, No Shark

So the other day I was reminded that laser levels exist. I've had it in the back of my mind to maybe pick one up at some point, but I've always been a little put off by the cost of what is, essentially, just a fancy laser pointer. It's been simple enough to get by without them, so spending a few hundred dollars just didn't feel justified.

Well, out of curiosity I took a peek on Amazon and it turned out that a fairly decent one was on sale for a fairly decent price, so I smashed the "Buy Now" button and went about with the rest of my day.

Curiously, though, I didn't get a confirmation email from Amazon for my order, so I took a peek on my orders page and discovered that for some unknown reason, my order had been cancelled. So I tried again, and again I got no confirmation email, and the order showed up immediately as cancelled.

Peculiar.

I'm not paid to debug Amazon's software bugs, so I just waited until the next day and tried again, only to have the order insta-cancelled a third time. I contacted support and they were like "idk your bank is probably rejecting the charge," which seemed very unlikely and, after checking in with my bank, turned out to be definitely not the case. Nonetheless, I tried deleting and re-adding my CC and lo and behold, the purchase was insta-cancelled again.

So again with the tech support chat, and after trying, with their encouragement, for a 5th time, they just gave up and gave me a $10 credit as an apology for apparently being incapable of carrying out their core functions.

But it actually turned out for the better, because I headed over to eBay to see what the used market had available, and as it turns out laser levels are one of those things that people buy, use for exactly one project, and then either try to return to where they bought it or flip it on the used market so it doesn't just end up as a dust collector on some shelf in their garage until the end of all time.

So I found an appealing looking listing for a slightly upgraded model from the one I had initially tried to buy on Amazon (it had the optional USB-C rechargeable battery instead of just being AA powered) and purchased it.

Only for that purchase to be cancelled. Apparently the seller was out of town and wouldn't return in time to get the item shipped out within eBay's allowable time window. But at least that was a valid excuse and not just the site failing.

But 7th time lucky, I found one for an even better price, ordered it, and miracle of miracles, here it is.

This is the Bosch GLL50-20GL, which is differentiated from the GLL50-20G by the inclusion of the aforementioned USB-C battery. It's a cross-line laser, so it shoots a horizontal and vertical line out one side of it, rather than having a full 360 line in three axes, which is fine by me. Having the triple-beam 360 thing is nice in some situations, but it's a lot more money and a lot more bulk.

But does it work? The answer is yes, yes it does.

I can check to see how out-of-level my kitchen counters are (not much, as it turns out) by shining the beam at a tape measure, and the line is pretty easy to read in normal lighting conditions. At least, it is indoors; I haven't tried it outside in full sun, so mileage may vary there.

As for my walls, they're out of plumb but not by much, and the measurement with the laser seems to match what my bubble level says.

It's got a 1/4-20 tripod mount in the bottom, and a magnetic bracket so that you can stick it to the side of something magnetic, as well as one of those nail eyelet hole things so you can hang it up on a nail or a screw or something.

So lots of convenient options there. I expect I'll be able to put this to good use.