Finally caved and bought a laser level after years of bubble levels

I always thought laser levels were just a gimmick for pros who had money to burn. Then I spent 4 hours trying to hang 12 picture frames in a straight line across my living room in Austin using a 2-foot bubble level. Kept marking the wall, stepping back, realizing it was off by a quarter inch, and redoing it. Borrowed my neighbor's Bosch laser level for the last 3 frames and finished in 20 minutes flat. Anybody else resist a tool forever then feel dumb for not buying it sooner?

3 comments

3 Comments

craig.john6d ago

Saw a guy on YouTube who builds custom cabinets say the same thing. Said he fought using a laser for years because he thought it was cheating. Then he timed himself marking a full kitchen layout with a bubble level versus a laser and the laser was 3x faster. Those 4 hours you spent on picture frames is exactly what he was talking about. Good tools save time but our stubbornness costs us hours.

casey6825d agoOG Member

Dude "good tools save time but our stubbornness costs us hours" that line hit me hard because I did the exact same thing with a chalk line. I was dead set on using a tape measure and a pencil to mark long cuts for years, thought the chalk line was just for framing walls. Finally tried it for a big deck project and it cut my layout time in half easy. @lindal13 I get what you're saying about bubble levels and sun fade too, that's real. But I think we all have that one tool we swear we don't need until we actually try it and feel dumb for waiting so long.

lindal135d ago

Is it really about stubbornness though, or is it just that some of us like the feel of a physical level? I get why you switched, and 20 minutes versus 4 hours is a big difference. But I still use my old 4-foot bubble level for setting posts in concrete or checking a deck for drainage, because a laser beam just fades out in direct sunlight and you can't just set it down and walk away. Plus, I've seen too many friends drop a laser once and have it be out of calibration, but a bubble level you can drop off a ladder and it still works. I'm not knocking your choice, I just think bubble levels have their place too.