The Shop > Tools
Anybody build Dan Gelbart angled laser centre finder?
PekkaNF:
My laser shows identical behaviour. I did some testing and reading. Laser diode does not produce clean dot, but the beam projects out as a wide fan line. After that it is clipped and collimated. When simply "focused" only focused point is roughly round and after that oval again.
VT is on the right track (or least on the same line than me) that using mirror/prism/lens and inclination to minimize effect of ovality.
As pointed before, clean point looks nice, but most of the time is not that important...I found out that rpm is importat to give correct visual glues.
I think that best accuracy is reached by visual means when sightest amount of scattered light envelopes on clear edge/side of the work piece.
It looks like acuracy depends very much of the shape of the work piece and angle of the laser beam that hits edge/side of the work piece. Looks like a upright cylinder/boss that has clean edge and large diameter is easy to center. Also looks like a tiny dot on the flat surface is very much not ideal for this type of centering.
Turners buttons or bearing rings probably would probably work very fine with this method. This would be very interesting if it turns out accurate.
My aim here is has been easy method on work pieces that would be othervice hard to index/center on milling machine that has no DRO.
More thesting and we will learn more.
Pekka
vtsteam:
I'm guessing that probably the linear shape of the beam is related to the element shape inside the diode.
If you look at a regular unlit LED you can see the shape of the pieces making (and blocking in some directions) the junction.
I imagine somethong similar happens in a laser diode.
Not important, but just sort of interesting.
Arbalist:
I believe the key to achieving an easy to read device is not so much in the shape of the dot (within reason) but more in the size and intensity of it. Vibration and the speed of rotation will have some effect as well.
Will_D:
Just got my 1 mW laser pointer/led torch from the bayand guess what?
The small print on the laser (i.e. warning label) says that its 5 mW. Its quite bright with 3 cells. Replaced one cell with a small 2 ba brass nut (I think its 2 ba) and smaller less bright spot!
ABout to knock up some fixtures
Arbalist:
Is there a safe way of testing if the body is live without damaging the unit? I have a small test meter.
I can insulate the unit if I need to but I'd rather dispense with it if I can.
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