Laser center finder first attempt

Created on: Friday 05 January 2007

Decided to see about making a laser edge finder. First attempt is somewhat successful.

The laser pointer I picked up at K-Mart has more of a stripe pattern than a dot. This isn't real obvious in the picture. Beam runs from off center outward.

The body of the laser pointer was a bit larger than .375, so into the lathe to turn it down.

When spinning this in the end mill holder, you get a donut pattern, just how useful that is we will have to see. Easiest to see this in the .avi.

Got a couple ideas to try with this, but I think I need a much better laser pointer to start with. Possibly more to follow on this.

Not pleased with this, going to search for a better laser pointer to start with. I can make something to hold it with.

Added 01/06/07 - In the process of seeing if I could re-arrange the internals to re-position the laser, I managed to break it good :-). Also found a spring that would fix my mechanical edge/center finder (the one that got stuck in the end mill holder and got pulled apart ruining the original spring to get it out) and fixed that. Will revisit this again once I locate a much better laser pointer.

(1693 KB)	(1932 KB)	(1848 KB)
(1892 KB)	56MB avi video of finder in operation