Laser Edge Finder

[PhiberOptix]

I have always wanted a laser edge finder since I first set eyes on one, butthe cost was ridiculasS £79 my A***

So I decided to make one, It is all done with basic turning, center drilling, drilling and tapping so I wont bore you with pictures of the deatils
and depending on what laser you buy the dimensions will need to alter accordingly

anyway, so I bought a keyring laser pointer off Ebay


turned a length or Stainless roundbar down center drilled it and drilled it so it holds the laser snuggly turned it around and thinned the back down so as it fits in drill chuck or collet I also drilled a hole and threaded it m4 so a grub screw can hold the laser is situ


next I made a coller to slide over the laser housing with one grub screw to lock it on to the housing and another above the on/off switch


a step inside alows clearance of the switch and forms a shoulder for the laser housing to butt up against


the three main parts


the laser in its housing


The finished product


Now it can be placed in the milling head in either a drill chuck or collet holder a little turn of the grub screw an on it comes a little red spot directly below

BEWARE some of the cheaper laser keyrings lasers' are not quite central so you may have to bore a bigger hole in the housing and use some shim steel to move the laser over, or drill the hole off center in the first instance, the way I checked mine was to place a center drill in the drilling chuck and just barely tuched on to some scrap material, replace the centerdrill with the laser and see where red dot is in relation to the centerdrill mark, mine was spot on

so there you go in less than an hour you can have a £79 laser edge finder for less that £2 and a few bits of stainless steel off cuts, and 3 grubscrews

Regards
Andy

[NickG]

Great idea Andy! Will definitely be giving that a go. How do you use those? At what point is the edge found?

NIck

[PhiberOptix]

Great idea Andy! Will definitely be giving that a go. How do you use those? At what point is the edge found?

NIck

That depends on the diameter of the lasers' beam the smaller the beam the more accurate it will be,
you can locate markout lines/intersections, just by the red dot been visible on the material where the dot is is where you drill/mill
good also for setting up vices etc
for edges I would use half the dot on and half off the material have a look at http://www.lasercenteredgefinder.com/
and http://www.mmsonline.com/articles/direct-edge-finding-via-laser.aspx they explain it far better than I can

Hope this helps
Regards
Andy

[raynerd]

 
smart idea - may very well give it a go!

Chris

[PhiberOptix]

Mine wasn't as spot on as I first thought so I had to mod it to get the laser dead central
4 adjusting cap heads were added to the sleeve so I can move the red dot about much the
same way as you would use a 4 jaw, ease off on one, then tighten its opposite side
turn the head thru 360 degrees and see if the dot moves at all, if it doesnt its central

[jim]

yes, thats a great idea, i'll be adding that to the ever increasing list of tools to make!!!

[ksor]

    YES - I think thiese last adjustment posibilyties is a "must" !

How precise is it to use -  can you in fact:

1) center when drilling ?
2) find the edge ?
3) align the vice ?

If it's stable I'll try to make one too.

Best regards
KSor, Denmark

[PhiberOptix]

  YES - I think thiese last adjustment posibilyties is a "must" !

How precise is it to use -  can you in fact:

1) center when drilling ?
2) find the edge ?
3) align the vice ?

If it's stable I'll try to make one too.

Best regards
KSor, Denmark

Hi KSor

YES - center when drilling ?
YES - find the edge ?
YES - align the vice ?
and also good for checking/setting alignment of tailstock

Regards
Andy

[websterz]

Just ordered myself a couple of laser pointers.   

[boatmadman]

This is a great solution, but I have one question.

With just one ring of adjusting screws how can you be sure the pointer is parallel to the axis of the spindle?

If you set it up at a distance - say 50mm from the workpeice and adjust to get it central, then if you move it to say, 150mm, if the pointer is not true then it will be off centre - ok, just a little maybe, but its there.

If you fit two adjusting rings, then this could be corrected.

Hope this is clear.

Ian

[ksor]

Yes - boatmadman, you'r right, but ...

if the laser diode is placed where the cutter comes out of the collets then the problem is eliminated - right ?

You can still have the adjustment ring in the buttom but the emiting point of the laser diode have to be placed in line with the buttom of the collet - and centered - I'll try to make one this way.

Best regards
KSor, Denmark

[NickG]

If the laser is pointing at an angle other than vertical, or rather colinear with the spindle, the point will move depending on how far the spindle nose is from the workpiece. I guess this would be pretty difficult to set up straight unless it's already colinear with its existing casing.

Nick

[dsquire]

Hi

In order to check for center, how would this work.

1. Place complete lazer edge finder in collet (that is known to be true) in headstock.
2. Turn Lazer on.
3. Lazer should now light up the point of the tailstock center. (If the tailstock is centered on the chuck.)
4. If light is not on tailstock center, turn chuck by hand and watch the travel of the lazer light.
5. Adjust the 4 screws of the adjusting ring as necessary until the red dot stays stationary when turning the lathe chuck.
6. I would think that 2 sets of 4 adjusting screws would be required for perfect alignment.

If tailstock is not centered then set a flat surface perpendicular to light beam and keep adjusting until light beam stays centered in same spot when rotating chuck. Change length from several inches to several feet (or as long as possible). The red dot must stay stationary at any distance or it is not accurate.

Just my thoughts on it. 


Cheers 

Don

[NickG]

Yes, was thinking about it last night and Don's method would definitely work but Andy's should also have worked making sure the dot was in the same place whilst rotating the mill spindle. Of course the more distance you can achieve that at, the more accurately it is set up.

Sounds pretty good, think I might try one of these.

[bogstandard]

For all those little bits

http://www.dealextreme.com/products.dx/category.910

Bogs

[ksor]

Now I got my laser pointer  , BUT ...

the "point" is way to big !

I thought a "laser diode" emited a very small bean - it doesn't ... a linse can be adjusted to focus the beam, but unfortunately the spot/beam can NOT be so narrow it can be used as edge finder - I think .  

[Yorkshireman]

I have made a similar tool in the past.
Do this: Stick some Alu Foil across the muzzle and make a tiny, tiny hole for the beam.
It does require some experiments, but it works! I did get a sharp pointed laser dot.
Johannes, Yorkie

[ksor]

-->Yorkshireman:   OK - I'll give it a try and hope I succeed - thanks !