I have a Starrett straight edge inherited from a machinist. It’s terrific. The grinding patterns are like art.

Rather than having precision bubble levels on my camera, which I think are basically useless, I’d much prefer some kind of miniature laser depth gauges on the rear standard facing the front standard so that I could quickly make the standards perfectly square/parallel (“zeroed”).

Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
That looks like a wonderful source, Bernice! I got hooked on Starrett selling it to machinists and mechanics starting when I was only 22 years old, back when all their business transactions were still hand written with paper and ink. I worked alongside an older fellow who had previously been a NASA optical machinist for satellite programs, who really knew his stuff. But I acquired my own levels much later when selling Starrett simply as a minor accessory line to cabinetmakers. If you want a square to check if other squares are really square on not (they seldom are), that's what you use. I've been using my Starrett squares and center punches this whole past two weeks on a project. And during that same era we were by far the largest Stabila dealer in the country, and I got free samples from them, and even better free samples from manufacturers now long gone. Mepro was another well-machined level brand.