Others say...

"The BLD 170 makes leveling a large tapestry easy!"
We purchased this B&D laser device to make a long level line high on a wall, in order to hang a very large tapestry. It worked very well. A supplied bracket installs easily to the wall with a small pin. This bracket contains a magnet that accurately holds the level. A very accurate, self-levelling line is then visible across the wall (in this case a 15' line). The line is not real bright, but visible as long as the room does not have bright incident light.

"Disappointed Again"
For thirty years I have been a General Contractor. This is the third (tool box) laser I have brought to hopefully make my life easier, yet I have not found any of these small units to be as advertised. (I say "tool box" because I do own some very expensive "large" self leveling laser units for excavation and construction that are very good)

AUTO leveling! FAT CHANCE! Not even close. Yes, it does have a sight gage in the front that gives you "an indication" of where level might be.

This too was very poorly designed. HARD TO READ. There is no actual mark to show THE LEVEL POINT or really where you are on the gage, only a series of hash marks. These marks are not balanced from one side to the other either. (There is an odd downward line intersecting the gage at 14 degrees right, which serves no purpose. This may be a manufacturing flaw, if so strike three.) You are left to guess where in these hash marks you should place this very poorly designed alignment mark to be set at level. As this mark is not within the gage itself, it is totally subjective.

I found I still had to measure the distance to the floor in several locations to see how level I was, and I wasn't! (This only works if the floor is level.)

ANGLE PRO, MAYBE! An angle is what you get! Look elsewhere. This is a waste.

The mounting pin is a problem to keep out to mount it and has no relevance to the laser height you are trying to achieve. I had thought maybe its pendulum style mount would work as a plumb-bob to level it but no such luck!

"somewhat accurate only in automode"
There are two "on" positions, one is automode and the other is manual mode. In automode, the laser inside balances itself without respect to the outside case. In manual mode, the laser is locked to the scale that is backlit.

Automode seems to work ok, not exactly perfect but ok for hanging things on the wall I guess. But the scale on the manual mode is certainly off by a large amount, and they don't give you a zeroing capability.

The interface is setup such that the backlight for the degree wheel is completely off when in automode. Backlight comes on in manual mode, but they might have well saved the $ on the lamp because it will just irritate you by how poorly its zeroed.

B&D should consider adding the capability to zero out the manual mode, or remove the manual mode.



"Can't live without it now..."
This is an awesome product. It makes the job so simple and accurate. It doesn't require a degree to use eithe!

"Self Leveling Feature is a Good Thing"
I recently purchased this unit to establish straight level lines around the perimeter of a living room. The self leveling feature makes this very easy. There is no need to fuss over getting the unit perfectly leveled as the projected laser line will adjust accordingly.

In those cases where you want a straight line between two known points, not necessarily a horizontal level or vertical plumb line, the self leveling feature can be turned off.

The built-in protractor can be useful for establishing various line angles from the horizontal.

I am very pleased with the BDL170.