Black & Decker BDL170 Bullseye Auto-Leveling Laser With AnglePro
- Projects horizontal and vertical lines
- Automatically levels; automatic reference for angled lines
- Rubber overmolds for additional protection; includes a back light for better visibility of the angle reference points
- 2-year limited warranty
- Included with leveler: two AAA batteries and wall mount
Product Description
Auto leveling laser levels automatically without adjustments. Projects horizontal or vertical laser line for a variety of applications. AnglePro provides an automatic reference for angled lines.Amazon.com Product Description
Use the AnglePro to align objects vertically as well as horizontally.
The AnglePro does a great job lining up pictures or knick-knacks on angled turf. About This BullsEye Laser Level
No more squinting at tiny vials or holding your breath while you wait for the bubbles to settle — with the BullsEye laser, perfectly aligned pictures, shelves, and more are right at your fingertips. With Black & Decker’s patented auto-leveling technology, BullsEye is the obvious choice for professionals or do-it-yourselfers who want the job done right the first time, and every time. The BDL170 is chock full of features that will make your home improvement or interior design tasks as simple as pie. It p… More >>
Black & Decker BDL170 Bullseye Auto-Leveling Laser With AnglePro
I have both the BDL170 and the BDL310. They are both lovely because you don’t need to rely on a bubble level to get the tool level. Instead, level is automatic. The big difference between the two is that the BDL310 does both horizontal and vertical at the SAME TIME. That has saved me a huge amount of time. Just search for BDL310 and compare for yourself.
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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!
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.
To answer the first reviewers question it has a attachement device with a little pin to punch it into the wall. If you don’t mind pinholes here and there.
More importantly I have two complaints. First, the centerpoint of the horizonal level is not well marked. It should have a big red line not a little black one like all the rest. But I see why they didn’t mark it well. When I hang the level on the wall a movement of less than one line thickness makes a huge difference on whether the line is acutally even with the floor or not. I am reduced to standing back and looking at the line and the floor and saying, “Yep, that looks good.” I coulda done that myself and saved the 20 bucks.
If I give it a little nod to usefulness it does give you a dependably straight line across the wall from one point. This can be useful but buy a used one or on sale. Wait till B & D has discontinued it and you can buy it in the bargin basket with all the other, “almost good enough” stuff B & D does.
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.