Ed Huntress wrote:

"Frnak McKenney" wrote in message
m...

Hi,Ed.

On Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:30:58 -0500, Ed Huntress
wrote:
"Frnak McKenney" wrote in message
m...

On 15 Nov 2011 03:11:36 GMT, DoN. Nichols
wrote:
On 2011-11-14, Steve B wrote:
What's a good one for around $25? Plus or minus a foot or so is good
enough.

[...]

Things may have changed in the last few years, but I'd recommend
reading the fine print on the model you select carefully.

The last time I went looking for one of these, a sub-$200 "laser
tape measure" meant "ultrasonic with a built-in laser pointer for
aiming".

(If I'm wrong, please let me know. I could use a couple of $25
Sick-type laser rangers for a robot I have in mind... grin!)

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[reply]

I have one of the Stanley laser tapes, made under license from
Leitz, for which I paid around $80 or $90 at HD, on sale a few
years ago.

I found the item at Grainger:

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/STA...aser-Msr-1RNY5

sort of.. it's listed there as "discontinued", and all I could find at
www.stanleytools.com was a 2005 press release. The apparent
replacement has the msae part number (TLM100) and currently sold
under a CST/Berger label for $130-180.

It's a hopeful sign, in any case. Thanks.

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[reply]

Too bad. The inveterate researcher went to work and got the story. Bosch
(CST/Berger division) acquired the line from Stanley, kept selling them
while they had stock (and, apparently, a contract with Leica), and they're
now out of them. They market some ultrasonic meters but the people I talked
to said they know of no plans to replace the laser unit. Stanley is out of
that business entirely.

So now you can go directly to Leica DISTO, or Stabila, or, interestingly,
Fluke to get a laser tape measure. The Fluke 411D (~$110) looks good:

http://www.fluke.com/fluke/usen/Lase....htm?PID=69331

It looks similar to the discontinued Stanley TLM 100.

Oh, and I'd still suggest that a $25 "laser tape" is likely to be
ultrasonic with a laser pointer grafted on. grin!

Definitely. I was reacting to Steve's suggestion that you'd have to pay
thousands for a true laser tape. For around $400 or so, you can buy a Leica
with Bluetooth output, for that matter.

--
Ed Huntress

Bosch and Ryobi both appear to have lower end laser rangers available,
see one of my other posts for links.