Changed my mind about using a laser level for crown molding

I always thought laser levels were a gimmick for trim work. Honestly, I figured a good tape measure and a sharp pencil were all you needed after 20 years of doing baseboards and door casings. But last weekend I tried installing crown molding in my living room, which has those old plaster walls that are anything but square. My buddy Alan loaned me his Bosch self-leveling laser and I was skeptical. After marking my first corner with it and seeing how the lines lined up perfectly across an uneven 12-foot ceiling, I was sold. The time I saved not measuring and leveling each section was probably 3 hours on a 15-foot run. I still had to cut and cope the joints, but the layout was dead on the first try. Has anyone else had success using laser levels for tricky ceiling work, or am I just late to the party?

3 comments

3 Comments

morgan.joseph2d ago

Yeah but then my laser battery died mid-cut...

william3202d ago

Damn, that sucks. @morgan.joseph What's wild is nobody talks about how some of those cheap laser modules have a hidden drain even when they're "off." I've seen the circuit boards keep pulling power from the battery to run a tiny LED or a voltage regulator. So you can charge it fully, leave it in a drawer for two weeks, and come back to a dead battery. Always worth checking the standby current with a cheap multimeter before you trust it for a real project.

markl751d ago

Honestly @william320, is a tiny LED drain really that big of a deal