I bought this to make it easier to stencil letters onto a flat board. This laser is designed to illuminate the red line (about 1/8 inch thick) of the wall, not the countertop. It comes with a small tripod, no more than a few inches high, and I'm not sure. how useful that can be. By the way, it comes with an extra set of button batteries. I mounted the laser level on a standard sized camera tripod and pointed it at the work surface. The lighting didn't even allow you to see the lines - they just aren't very bright (one star removed for brightness). were very crooked - didn't stand straight. At a distance, the line thickness did not change much, only its curvature, making it unsuitable for calligraphy when mounted on a conventional tripod. The laser should be directly above and pointing directly at the writing area. Reuse of C-arm devices. Searching the internet for camera mounts that can do this has yielded many unsatisfactory or expensive solutions. A cheap and easy solution is to use a ladder with a wooden plank attached to the top of the ladder so the long edge of the plank hangs over your work surface. Insert a screw (this should be a 1/4"-20 metal screw, a very common size) horizontally into the edge of the board to allow the threads to hook into the laser camera mount (check the screw on the laser mount first) To do this, drill a 1/4" diameter hole in the board, then screw it deep enough into the board to keep it from dangling, and finally cut off the head of the screw with a hacksaw - you only need about 3 /8" of the thread sticking out of the board. Then screw the laser onto the screw and power it on. If you have a nut that fits the screw you can use that to secure the laser firmly to the Screw to fasten.You can align the laser lines by moving the work surface, ladder, board or the laser itself.