Alternative to red dot beam combiner for positioning?

Instead of a beam combiner, has anyone put a couple of crossing line generator diode lasers on their laser head, adjusted so the two planes intersect at the laser axis?

$9 plus some 3d-printed holders for another 50¢ seems like a potentially legit alternative to $130+ for a combiner set. Thoughts?

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If you use dot pointers instead of line pointers, you can easily set it up so that when the 2 dots overlap each other, the laser is in focus. Can’t do that with line pointers. :slight_smile:

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Well that makes sense. Different two-pack then!

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Yeah I seen a number of people do that type of mod. I’m sure you could find some Stl files on thingiverse that you could mod for your laser.

This is the kind of thing that I usually find it easy to make STLs for. Geometric shapes my specialty. :slight_smile:

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I have a pointer on my machine but I use it only for rough positioning.
I found that aligning and keeping the laser diodes aligned is more trouble than it’s worth. I just add a target to the design and check the workpiece alignment by moving to the target in lightburn and then pulsing the laser to test.

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I could just 3D print something that fits to the nozzle and terminates at a physical pointer at the focus point. (For bonus points it could be an electrical probe that sets the bed Z reference…) I think I’ll take laser pointers off my build list for now.

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I’ve made this piece for our Lasersaur 5 years ago:

It’s two linelasers that are turned so that the line goes through the center. This way the cross is always at the center, no matter how far away the head is from the bed.

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Aha, I am not the only person to have had this idea! That was indeed what I was thinking about. Thank you! :slight_smile:

Keep in mind that just cause the line lasers are aligned to the head does not mean they are aligned to the beam coming out of the objective lense. Most setups [unless perfectly aligned] are not perfectly parallel to the surface. Depends on how accurate you want the line lasers to be. :).

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That’s why there are three rund bolts, to adjust the angle.

By the way, the black rings on the linelasers are rubber seal rings to stop the lenses from shifting/turning.

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Bought mine from ebay:

Works nicely.

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