Drill-Press laser cross-hairs for an approximate zero

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Rando
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Location: Boise, ID
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Drill-Press laser cross-hairs for an approximate zero

Post by Rando »

All:

One somewhat minor thing I did with the new spindle was to get one of those cheap drill-press laser guides. I think mine came from PeachTree woodworking. While clearly it's not going to get me "under a mil" in repeatability, most of my jobs have the lower-left 0-0 inside the material anyway. I was happy to see the beams, even when attached to the spindle, the beams go down to the chuck, bit and material.

As for alignment, the piece they send is okay, but the heavy coat of paint on the main shaft means it won't actually go into a properly-sized 3/8" collet. I ended up removing the paint from the main shaft so it would "almost" fit. Why they couldn't use a standard size I'll never know.

Here's what it looks like. It was easy to install and reasonably easy to align, and gives "good enough" results. Plus, what's not fun about watching a laser cross-hairs moving across your work?
20150414_170352.jpg
Enjoy!

Thom
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ThomR.com Creative tools and photographic art
A proud member of the Pacific Northwest CNC Club (now on Facebook)

4DThinker
Posts: 951
Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2012 9:00 am

Re: Drill-Press laser cross-hairs for an approximate zero

Post by 4DThinker »

I ordered the same laser attachment and now have it mounted on my "other" CNC. That one is using a Dewalt 218 router for spindle and using the smaller clamp that came with the laser it fits fine. I couldn't get the included setup tool to fit in the router so instead used a 60 degree v-bit to aim the lasers, and a square line drawn on a square block of wood to "true" the lasers vertical to the CNC bed.

The laser lines are about 1/16" fat, but it is easy to "see" a center where they cross. I jog the router until the lasers are right over any spot I've marked for 0,0 then SET X and Y to 0. Setting Z=0 is done with the lasers OFF. Not sure I'll rely on the lasers for work that needs to be VERY precisely cut in a specific place on a board, but it should make quick work of any job where being within 1/32" for X and Y is close enough.

My Shark is a Pro using the Bosch Colt and I don't see any way to mount this laser attachment on it. I'll be testing one out on the PC router we use on our HD 2.0 where I work though.

Thanks for posting this thread!

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