Chad's Flexure Mount Review!!
This is a review of Chad's mini flexure mount's. Flexure mounts like this are great for steering, combining or splitting beams in a tight space that requires minor adjustments up or down, left and right. Small mirrors and dichros can be glued with a small dab of epoxy on the kinematic mount surface.
Here are some pictures of the mount....
http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t...2/P3266232.jpg
http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t...2/P3266227.jpg
http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t...2/P3266226.jpg
While the mounts adjustment capabilities may be tight (a FEW degrees) It is an extremely tight package. The idea is, with proper placement, only minor adjustments are needed to aim the beam precisely. Another nice feature about this mount is that it will hold it's setting well and not easily drift out of it's position due to it's sturdy and small design along with the push/pull locking adjustments.
The mount is constructed out of 6061 aluminum alloy. I have flexed both X and Y adjusters back and forth about 10 times and did not see any noticeable fatigue in the alloy and only minor flaking on the red anodizing, so minor it's hardly noticeable without a magnifying glass. I'm very impressed with the amount of flex these mounts will actually produce but I don't want to post a number of degrees without a proper test. The whole mount is only 25mm tall and only weighs a little over 10 grams!
http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t...2/P4056268.jpg
http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t...2/P4056266.jpg
The adjuster screws are a push/pull arrangement. The two top screws control the Y axis, up and down. The two bottom screws control the X axis, left and right. Both screws on either axis are 3mm with .5mm threads. I personally think this is a good middle point between coarse and fine adjustment. A typical application of this mount would be a 16th of a turn to a full turn get your beam on track. The "push" set screws accept a 1.5mm Allen key and the "pull" cap head screws accept a 3mm Allen key. I would suggest a ball head type Allen key set for adjusting these mounts. It will make it easier to get to them in tight spaces. Also, the 1/16 and 3/32 Allen keys will work for adjusting these mounts since you don't need much torque to set these. The only con of the push/pull arrangement is that you have to loosen one screw in order to move the other. However, the pro of this design allows you to lock in your adjustment making it very hard to bump out of tune unlike an MM1 or MM2. You'll break the damn mirror off before you knock one of these out of adjustment! :D
Here are some pics showing the dimensions of these mounts...
http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t...2/BackView.jpg
http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t.../FrontView.jpg
http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t...2/SideView.jpg
http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t...f2/TopView.jpg
As you can see, these mounts are VERY well made. All CNC milled with very clean and contoured edges. Even the bottom has a very minute shave on the bottom of it to keep friction off of the X axis motion. The mount also has three surfaces to mount your optic to. One flat head-on surface and two 45 degree surfaces off of the flat which is great for knife edge mirrors in beam combining.
In conclusion, I think this mount is perfect for it's application. The size, shape and dimensions were all well thought out. It is extremely durable and will easily outlive most parts in a laser projector. These mounts have endless capabilities in beam table layout and design and will surely help us hobbyists and professionals alike make our works of art smaller and more compact.
http://i512.photobucket.com/albums/t...MOMEndView.jpg
These flexure mounts can be purchased from Chad at the following website for $24.95 USD each with $4.99 for shipping in the UD and $12.00 international.
http://sites.google.com/site/laserthings/
Discounts are available for 4 or more mounts. Please email Chad at moki123@gmail.com for more details.
Thanks!
Adam
