I use a laser level when I need to change the height of the table on my drill press, then re-center the spindle.
I used a plumb bob and chalk line to snap a vertical line on the wall about 5' behind the press. You want the line as far away as possible as long as you can easily see the dot. You need to be very careful when you snap the line. If the line is off, you'll have an error that increases the farther you move your table or mill head.
Best of all would be to leave a plumb bob permanently hanging from the ceiling with the bob in a bucket of water to damp (no pun intended, as far as you know) any movement of the bob. This is a bit "retentive," though, and I find that the line is more than enough.
Before I move the table I put the level on it (the level is magnetic) and center the dot on the line. It's not a perfectly round and crisp dot, so a bit of eyeballing is called for. Then I move the table, re-center the dot, and remove the laser from the table. The laser lives on top of the drill press, stuck to the belt guard so that it's always handy.
I have measured this using my Blake Co-Ax indicator, and I can consistently return the table to center within +/- .002". Best of all this procedure is fast, and there is no need to change tooling to insert a wiggler, indicator, etc.
Two thou is pretty good on a drill press but might be a large error if you are boring (well, not you personally....I mean, if you're using a boring head.
) or doing some other precision work, and in that case you might need to use a indicator to perform the final tweaking.
Try it. Works great. Frankly, I think this is about the only good use for the laser levels that just shoot a line. I'd never buy another of those. The only useful laser levels are the ones that rotate or produce a "fan" shaped line. Otherwise you might as well use a water level, it's more accurate and easier to use too.
Glenn