Number of images: 15
Created on: Friday 20 April 2007
Pix of what was included in the package and several of the device itself.
The little white tab at the top of the battery compartment needs to come out, Tried pulling but ended up taking the cover off the compartment to get it all.
Pix 9 is the laser module out of a DVD drive that drowned in the local dust. Not sure it would work well as when testing it after I got it out of the DVD drive, I forgot the current limiting resistor and it glows now rather than shines :-/. That's OK as I am probably not going to continue to develop my own now.
Pix 13-20 are the device in the mill. Spot isn't bad, centering thumbscrews, as someone noted, are a bit coarse, but with some effort you can get it pretty well centered. I did not try focusing it.
To check it out, I center drilled a piece of aluminum and replaced the center drill with the laser guide. The cone showed it was not perfectly centered (not sure that is really possible) but with some futzing I got a consistant color in the hole. Didn't seems to vary much when spinning (pix 20).Pix 21 is shooting it from the chuck of the micro-lathe at the tool bit. Beam tended to be somewhat circular at that point but it looks like a did a pretty decent job of getting the bit on center :-)! I was sorta leaned over and not using any lights (the 1KW ones I use for photography would have probably washed the laser out) so I could see the beam so the shake is obvious.
The directions it came with are shown in mmlg.jpeg and I also save it as mmlg.pdf in case you are getting one that is enroute and want to see what you are getting into :-).
Compared to the one I was trying to make, it seems to have the same alignment problems, but to a lesser degree. The beam is certainly better, it does look like a better quality laser module. Also, you do not have to completely disassemble this thing to replace the batteries.
Worth it? I think so at this point. Time and usage will tell me more.
IMG_0002.JPG
(843 KB)
|
IMG_0003.JPG
(2574 KB)
|
IMG_0004.JPG
(2182 KB)
|
IMG_0005.JPG
(2657 KB)
|
IMG_0006.JPG
(1209 KB)
|
IMG_0007.JPG
(1058 KB)
|
IMG_0008.JPG
(2085 KB)
|
IMG_0009.JPG
(2156 KB)
|
IMG_0013.JPG
(1982 KB)
|
IMG_0014.JPG
(2028 KB)
|
IMG_0017.JPG
(1898 KB)
|
IMG_0018.JPG
(1922 KB)
|
IMG_0020.JPG
(1917 KB)
|
IMG_0021.JPG
(1843 KB)
|
mmlg.jpeg
(1713 KB)
|