Brief Description: Notes on using a laser level for alignment
One of the key tasks in building an airplane is getting it straight as an arrow at critical points in the build process. A clear example is when joining the front and rear halves of the fuselage, which I did tonight. The first time I did this job, I followed the instructions from Zenith which prescribe the use of a chalkline. This time around, I decided to follow the lead of Debo Cox who did the same job with a laser level. Stanley makes a Fat Max model for about $100 that is the cadillac of self-leveling laser levels. Because of a super sale at Harbor Freight, I was able to snag a generic level with the same functionality for one-third of the price. The model is 92703-0VGA and it works well enough in a darkened garage or at night. Once again, you get what you pay for. The key is to set up the level 18" to 24" higher than the tail, which allows the vertical line to be cast all along the centerline of the airplane. As you can see below, having white index cards at various points helped me to see clearly the laser line as compared to the adjacent centerline on each part.
