Laser sighting

[jrw]

Does anyone know if there is a way to hook a laser pointer to the router to get pin point sighting, I do alot of moving around on the table and thought it would be great to have a laser (kind of like the way laser engravers sight start points on the project) Is there one that can be chucked up in the router?

[davidallen]

yeah, piece of cake. either northen tools or harbor freight will have a laser level that has a magnet in it's base. it also has a couple of holes in the bottom so you can glue locating pins on the z axis. that way you can mount and unmount the laser with repeatable accuracy.

the one I have came with a lens that produces a line. which is useful for aligning stock parallel to an edge. some models have a cross-hair lens which gives a more definable point.

one note, I've found it useful to reduce the amount of light when using the laser spot by covering the opening with tape and using a pin to open a very small hole. that gives you a smaller spot to reference with and cuts down on the glare.

da

[rockytops]

Can anyone give us information of manufacturers of a laser that we could attach to our Bot with a view to laser engraving fund raising bricks.

[jbrunson]

You would be better off just buying a laser engraver of of Ebay, The Prices are droping every week. I bought one last month for $12,200 the next week it was $8999

[johnwsrcv@aol.com]

I bought a laser pointer from Radio Shack. It is about 3 inches long and a bit over 1/2 inch in diameter. Simply turning the end of the case to 1/2 inch dia allowed it to fit right in the chuck on the router. A tie wrap is used to close the switch. It can easily be slipped off the switch when not used. This works great and allows for real precice alignment of glued up blanks prior to cutting.

[gerald_d]

There are also some laser pointers where the beam does not come out in the center of the housing, or where the beam is not parallel to the housing. These would be useless for putting in the router chuck/collet.