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nitestriper said:
Where would you suggest I find a cylindrical lens?
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I found one a long time ago in some type of computer peripheral (a printer, more likely than not) that used a long bar filled with yellow-green LEDs. The lens was a long glass rod, which was easily broken into small segments. Those segments, when placed in front of a laser, caused it to generate a line.
I'd imagine that you could acquire a glass laboratory stirring rod, smash it, and pick a piece that's approximately 0.25" to 0.35" long, and there, there's your cylindrical laser line generating lens. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif