Paint and Alignment

[djpsych]

Two questions:
1. The case that I will be mounting all of the laser projector components in, it currently has a shiny metal surface. What type of paint should I use to paint the inside of this case? I am guessing some sort of matte black.

2. I am mounting all the lasers on separate aluminum plates that will be adjustable with nuts on a bolt. Should these be lock tight nuts or will regular nuts work fine? Do I have to worry about the nuts loosening up during travel and having to align the plates and dichroics, instead of just the dichroics?

[JohnYayas]

Your hunches are correct. Go with them.

[LaNeK779]

2. I am mounting all the lasers on separate aluminum plates that will be adjustable with nuts on a bolt. Should these be lock tight nuts or will regular nuts work fine? Do I have to worry about the nuts loosening up during travel and having to align the plates and dichroics, instead of just the dichroics?

if, for any reason you don't want to use lock tight nuts, you can also use two nuts per point, one to set the height and the second to tighten the first nut in place

or, if you want to overengineer a bit, use a set of one lock tight and a plain nut for each point

[dnar]

I have always preferred Nylock nuts. It comes down to cost and personal preference.

[buffo]

I used the nylon locking nuts on my first build too. They work well.

Now, on my new projector, I'm not installing any floating tables. Instead, I'm adding one extra bounce for each of the beams that needs to be adjusted. That way it's a lot easier to get my alignment dialed in. (Easier to adjust an MM1 than to adjust 4 nuts on a floating table...)

Adam

[JohnYayas]

My lasers are currently mounted on shims for height alignment and it causes problems every time I have to change a laser diode. Bounce mirrors would solve that but I am going to change to shims that are at a slight angle so height adjustment will be a matter of only moving the laser back and forth.

[djpsych]

Thanks for the help!

Any more advice on paint?