Do I need to get a precision machinist level at my very very early stages of learning.
Do you "need" to.... Well, no.
Would it benefit you? Maybe. Probably even. But probably not as much as it would first seem.
Here's my opinion on those. I want one, but I don't have one and won't be getting one any time soon. I live in Vermont, I work in a basement, and seasons change. You're in PA somewhere, so I'll bet this affects you as well. Winter, seasonal ground moisture changes, and a general shifting of anything built into or onto the ground. Your floors are gonna move enough seasonally to drive that level bat(crap) crazy.
Yes, it can make things VERY level. And that's great. It's a shortcut to get set up. But in the end, after your setup, you're going to end up (probably) doing it over, and over, and over... When in fact that is not necessary. Is it nice? Sure. It'd be cool if you could do an accurate setup off of your mill table with just that simple measurement. But things move.
Now, if you're repairing, rebuilding machines... You need to compare surface A to surface B... Yeah, at some instant in time this can be a very powerful tool for comparative readings. But for leveling a mill as an assembly? Not needed. For leveling a lathe? Even if you got it leveled "perfect", you're still going to end up doing the final tweaks (probably tweaking -away- from perfect), by the cuts it takes.
I think, until you're into serious stuff, what you NEED is a carpenter's level, and the diligence to check level with the level in both directions, until the bubble offsets match. That'll get you pretty far if you pay attention to it.
Now that I've said that... It is a good tool. You'll tear your hair out over it, probably more than a few times. But it's a good tool. If you WANT that tool... I bet you've spent more on tools that weren't "needed" for some particular job. My suggestion is, if you want one, stick it on your luxury list, and wait for a good deal on a used one, a fire sale on a new one, or when you're in a position to grab one "just because you can", without worrying if it's going spoil the tool budget and keep you from more useful and/or necessary tooling.
This advice is from a guy who is prone to using a tenths and/or a 50 millionths indicator (good grief those things are fiddly, to a degree that will make the level in question seem easy....) to inspect parts who's tolerance might be five or ten thousandths. Just to try to "see" and understand the sizes, shapes, and general imperfectons of seemingly (and practically) perfect parts that clearly are just how they are supposed to be. Stuff made with tools that are not reasonably capable of working to those tolerances. For me it's not necessity, it's more of a studying and learning thing than a practical measurement. If you WANT that level, there's no reason you shouldn't have it, and will probably enjoy using it, and will probably find a thousand ways to do useful things, borderline useful things, and totally useless things just for an excuse to use it. And there's nothing wrong with that. I just wouldn't put it in the "need" category.
