# Rotary laser center finder



## Flightmap (Aug 30, 2014)

Dan Gelbart has a series of interesting videos and I thoroughly enjoy repetitive viewing.  In video 15 he shows a laser center finder for a mill that I would really like to copy/build.  Has anyone tried to locate his plan?  John Norman offered a variant of Dan's but I like the style of Dan's.

tried to contact Dan through a professional org. But no luck as yet.  Hoping some one else had a similar interest and better luck in finding a set of plans/bill of materials.

Ken


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## Hawkeye (Aug 30, 2014)

I have that laser unit on my project list. I just watched it again. Very cool tool. For those who haven't seen it, check out 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otSjut1iGGk&feature=youtu.be

I haven't seen any plans, but it doesn't look too difficult to design. You'll need some way to hold the laser pointer and to hold the whole unit firmly to your chuck or spindle. (Don't want that dropping off at full speed.) Maybe a separate battery in the body, if you don't want to keep replacing those button cells. I might make the body out of plastic, but aluminum is also a possibility. You will want to keep the whole thing fairly well balanced.


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## Gyan (Sep 27, 2014)

What a great tool ! +1 on having one!


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## Sansspaceship (Oct 4, 2014)

Hi All,

Not sure if you are aware of this, not quite what was in the video but I have one and it is great for doing quick and dirty alignments.

http://www.lasercenteredgefinder.com

cheers,
.adrian


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## hman (Oct 4, 2014)

The July 2014 issue of the Home Metal Shop Club newsletter (available on their site) has an article and plans for one.  It's entitled "Spindle Laser Locator."  I'm in the process of designing and building my own, based on the article.

I won't give the link here (possibly against forum policy), but it's easy enough to Google for Home Metal Shop Club.  The HMSC Projects page should be at or near the top.  Click on that and use your browser to search for "laser."


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## Round in circles (Oct 4, 2014)

Hawkeye said:


> I have that laser unit on my project list. I just watched it again. Very cool tool. For those who haven't seen it, check out
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otSjut1iGGk&feature=youtu.be
> 
> I haven't seen any plans, but it doesn't look too difficult to design. You'll need some way to hold the laser pointer and to hold the whole unit firmly to your chuck or spindle. (Don't want that dropping off at full speed.) Maybe a separate battery in the body, if you don't want to keep replacing those button cells. I might make the body out of plastic, but aluminum is also a possibility. You will want to keep the whole thing fairly well balanced.



You will need a laser beam that is perfectly central to the casing . I made a simple holder with six small screw in adjusters  to try and set up a simple £10 ( $ 15 ?) pointing laser . 
The turning was easy , trying to get it aligned was not.
 The beam came out at about 18 degrees from parallel with the sides and unless I managed to re site it perfectly every time in the same axis of alignment ( impossible ) it was taken off and put back I was on to a loser . 

Now if you could aim the beam with mirrors and set it through a cross hair slit things might be different but do any of us have the required skills to do this ? 

The footprint  of the beam was also problematic , for over a length of 42 inches you could see that the dot of the beam looked like four sausages side by side and covered  almost 1/8 th of an inch by x 9 /64 ths of highly reflected light .  Even at a distance of only 12 inches the dot was far bigger than my dot punched scribed cross lines .
 As for finding an edge , due to the beam spliting in half on the edge and one half of it being reflected back at all angles it's a similar problem to be solved 

 I found that using a decent fixed centre Morse taper in the tail stock and putting  into the dot punched hole was far quicker & easier to align things.
 I think it was "  British Steel " on this site who suggested using the method employed by Rolls Royce precision engineers by using a ball bearing tipped rod in the tool post to centralise round bar in a stopped work piece to the best limits before turning thing up . Put  piece in gently lightly tightened chuck jaws ,  for as you advance the feed on a hand rotated chuck the bearing presses the work piece into alignment , Then tighten the chuck and re check  for accuracy . 
 For my centre finder I've turned up a six inch long 1/4 stainless bar to a good point and set this in the small Jacobs lathe tail stock chuck  , smear the face of the work piece with some engineers blue or similar and gently advance the point onto the smeared face ,then gently hand rotate the chuck . You'll soon see if you have the centre accurate and in any case  can you can see where it is if it's not central so you can then dot punch in the centre of the scraped clean circle .

 Whoops ..... I do apologise , I took the laser indicator to be for lathe use . . twas only when I looked a the link and managed to get the connection I saw the error of my words .  though if I have comprehended things correctly first time I would have taken on board that you did say " mill " in your opening lines.

 I think you'll still need to have a real good quality fine point laser for the best results though , something out of a CD player perhaps ?


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## johnthefish (Oct 9, 2014)

I've made one of these http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com/laser-centreing-device.html
The dot is rather large but it works ok. Perhaps I'm not so fussy. It's so cheap and quick to make,so if you don't like it,bin it,you haven't lost much...


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## lens42 (Oct 9, 2014)

It's clear from the replies that many have not actually watched the video. Gelbart's design requires no special alignment of the laser. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## george wilson (Oct 9, 2014)

I bought one of those laser center finders when they first came out. I use it when making jewelry master models to locate bezels. But,it isn't accurate enough for serious work. The dot needs to be MUCH smaller. I guess it is about 1/64" in dia.. That's too large. Maybe someone has made one that has a smaller dot.

I watched the Gebhart video,and I just do not find his laser accurate enough either. It all depends upon what you are doing,and how accurate the work needs to be. Maybe I'm too particular,but I won't even rely upon the laser that some circular miter saws have. I want to split a SHARP pencil line when woodworking. Guess I'm a fanatic!


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