Laser Edge Finder built from simple Laser Pointer?

[DagNabbit]

Hi all,

I found this recentlyhttp://www.lasercenteredgefinder.com/main.html and wondered if something like that could be built using an off the shelf pointer. The key to this particular technology, as I understand it is diffusion. The laser beam has to be as precisely cast on the object as possible.
Any ideas?

 

[krutzbeuazen]

reading your post, and having no idea what you were talking about, i imagined some fancy, high-tech machinery, anything but what i saw on the site..

its nothing but a laserpointer in a useful housing, well centered beam, and useful dot. the dot should be "clean" and not too bright. small preferably too.

you could build one yourself easily! well, "easily" depends on how accurate it has to be, and what price (theirs) you have to beat, with materials and time.

you could get an aizix housing, to get a well centered beam. put a pinhole inside and/or outside, for clean dot, smaller dot, and reduced brightness. you wont need anything above 5mw (which would be in fact illegal and dangerous), even 1mw could be too bright, and dangerous, since it will be shining on high reflective metal, with you watching from above (almost in optical axis) too.

you could perhaps build one with less than 20 dollars, and perhaps a day work. if you already have fine machinery, it could build your edgefinder, and in return let the edgefinder help your machinery later!

oh, and be sure to show us results!

manuel

 

[DagNabbit]

Thanks for the reply, it was very helpful. I sort of figured that there wouldn't be much to it. I will absolutely show the results here. Thanks again!

 

[krutzbeuazen]

good luck with your project, curious how it will turn out!

i begin to value (spare) time more now.. if that bought edgefinder would be, like, 50$, and i would expect to spend hours on searching materials and a day for building it, i would *now* probably just buy it.
of course the way is the goal, if its a hobby!
and thats why we are here, not?

oh, and welcome to the forum! its a nice place here!

manuel