Any tips for using the Mastercraft Hawkeye laser

[marmaduke]

Ready to hang cabinets and I dug out this laser level (not). Spent quite a few hours trying to figure it out. I mounted it on a tripod and leveled it with the built in levels. Useless, the horizontal line is still 5 degrees out. So I ignored it and measured on the walls with a pencil a few marks and tried to line up the lasor on the marks and checked with my 3 ft level. After all that I thought what good is this thing I could have just made a line with my pencil when I used my regular level to check the lasor line? I dont know if there is a way to adjust calibrate the unit, you can make a vertical line or horizontal by turning a thumb knob from stop to stop but its nowhere near accurate, hate to throw it away but I wouldn't even give to someone like this. Is there something I'm missing, does this thing have any use hanging cabinets?

[bbain32]

There is a reason good laser levels are multiple hundreds of dollars, don't expect the same performance out of a 39.99 piece of junk from crappy tire.

You could try taking the casing off to see if there is some sort of adjustment, but not likely.

[matt.mackinnon]

You could use it as a door stop for when you are carrying in your cabinets. Use the flat side to bang in nails.. the number of options are endless... unless you plan to use it to get a level.

[John Bartley]

I have a sawmill - all manual, but with a 20' x 30" capacity. Leveling for various cuts needs to be measured somehow, so I scrapped the Mastercraft level I had rec'd as a gift, used the LED from it, mounted it on a homemade hanger that clips onto the side rails of my sawmill and I use it for getting my sawlogs adjusted to the height I want. Saves a ton of running back and forth with a measuring tape on the long logs

John

[marmaduke]

LOL, one day when I have nothing better to do I will take it apart and see what I can do with it, hopefully loose the parts and through it away.

[Jacques Leclerc]

I have one just like yours and it is useless. An other one of their fine product.
Jacques

LOL, one day when I have nothing better to do I will take it apart and see what I can do with it, hopefully loose the parts and through it away.

[Born-in-the-dust]

take it to the driving range and happy gilmour it. I use a dewalt 087(?). its about $150 and self leveling. not the most accurate thing out there (believe its within an eight over 30') but for cabinets and such it works well.

[callee]

I was reading my carpentry text book the other day, and in the chapter about levels it discussed laser levels and I was surprised at how acceptable the plus/minus is on even the most expensive ones.

In the next section, it discussed the water level, and mentioned how it was dead accurate 100%, how the technology has existed since the egyptians, and how you could make one for $20 of parts from the hardware store.

[marmaduke]

My brother brought over his lasor level. Made by Robotools and it works great, and remote control too. We were able to split the beam all the way across the 2 banks of cabinets installed so far, 1 more to go. His is auto leveling and turns 360 degrees,its a must have.