Laser edge finder for peanuts

I understand that this may make edge finding easier and quicker to setup your zeros, is that true? Does it reduce time and is it as accurate as using the edge finder? Trust me I am always looking for a way to make things easier.
And thanks for the great idea on the bandsaw. I had one on my compound miter saw but took it off so it is laying around somewhere. I need to find it and mount it somehow to my bandsaw.
Ed
 
I guess ultimately it's as only as accurate as the drill/reamer you use for the mounting hole, but I use it to quickly indicate my vise. It's also good for locating spots you want to drill.
 
I am looking at all the uses I can come up with in theshop but at this time am overwhelmed with other projects. I did however talk tomy son and he said the laser, used on the mill, can be accurate within at leastthousandths so it should be close enough for me. I need to get the anodizingproject and lathe compound rebuild out of the way then I can start pursuinglasers. I have two lasers here one 10mw red and the other a 15mw red which both are to power hungry for general application. I need to get some 5mw to try and build some tool aides. Will have to let you know how I make out when I start working on them.
Ed
 
Like the idea. Do you have any indication how accurate you can find edges on mill? How repeatable is the edge finding?

Werner
 
Yeah, I'd stick with the 5mw red modules. The Greens (532n) are too bright even at 5mw and the blurays (407nm) not bright enough and give poor contrast, with my table at least. I didn't bother testing a blue diode (445nm) because the ones I have are too strong and would reflect all over the place.
 
The cool thing is there are lenses to put on the ends of these to project patterns, like a cross hair for intance. I got two recently one was a circle with a dot and the other a simple crosshair. They were for use on a rifle for close quarters and man does both of them make it easy to point the gun. I made mounts for a friend to attach these lasers with. Anyway back to the laser they do make these for industry but can get salty but as "spikec" has found out it is easy to make one and cheap. The parts are readily available and easy to get. One source of laser parts I buy from is aixiz.com but there are many places to purchase the parts. Also in my latest The Home Shop Machinist magazine there is a advertisement for such a product by www.lasercenteredgefinder.com. It looks like it is pretty accurate if adjusted properly and should be easy enough to locate the vise for x-y zeroing. I can't wait to try this but right now I am working on my first anodizing project and so far WOW. :)):))
 
Assemblying the project right now for my friend but I had to make new focus knob for the laser because the laser module lense does not fit snuggly into the knob I made. So now that I made a new knob I am in the process of anodizing it. As soon as I get the project assembled I will take pics. If we want to talk about anodizing project we can start new thread because I think I am dragging this thread off track of "spikec's" original topic. Sorry if I am, I am new to this.
The parts I did anodizie are part of a laser and flashlight combo for on a shotgun. I'll let you know how it turns out.
 
Nope, you're right on track with the anodyzing project, it's something I'm about to do with a bunch of stuff eagerly wait your results! I might try this method, which uses sodium bisulfate instead of full-up sulfuric acid.
 
Here are some photos of the anodizing I just did. Two are of the laser and flashlight mounts I made for my friend's shotgun and the other is a aluminum scrap I made playing with the rotary table. The gear I highly polished than anodized using black dye. It kept a really nice shine but the black is not as dark as the other parts I did that were left with a brush finish. The other parts are the tube mount on the shotgun and then the two mounts for the laser and flashlight. Also I anodized the laser and flashlight bodies after stripping the anodizing off with Greased Lightning. Also the laser host was anodized after I machined that to fit the flashlight tube. I hope this makes sense. Also I used the anodizing method "spikec" talked about using the sodium bisulfate. The anodizing was pretty easy but I must stress the importance of having the parts clean, clean, clean.
Ed
 
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