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Thread: Alignment of components...?

  1. #1
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    Default Alignment of components...?

    Ok, so now I'm starting to mentally plan the stages of building a projector.

    One thing that has occurred to me is that some of the spacing of components (laser aperture to galvo block, dichro mirrors to galvos, etc) is very critical.

    How do you go about aligning these things, and then how do you make up the parts for it?

    I'd have thought that having some kind of adjustable bed for the laser to sit on wouldbe easiest, you could just screw it up and down as needed, but I notice that lots of you guys seem to have machined blocks under your laser sources. Do you get these made up specially, or can you buy ally block, or fixed height heatsink easily?

  2. #2
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    Default

    If your laser beams exit at round about the same heights - give or take a mil or two you can normally adjust for that on the dichros. In my projector the Blue is fixed hieht and has a plate underneath it to match the scanner height, but the green and red are height adjustable. One problem with having height adjustable lasers is making sure you are effectivley coupling the heat out of them. Fortunately for me my green & red are passively cooled, so there isnt the same need that there is with a tec cooled laser. It may be best to shim the lasers with ally plate to get them to be the same height, as unfortunately even a set of lasers from one manufacturer does not ensure the beams will match up heightwise so its likely you will always need to adjust this.
    I make all my own mountings - including the dichro mounts but you can buy all the bits you need. You can see some images of my projector showing its layout and how I have made various bits here -
    http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...ead.php?t=2835
    Check out this thread http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...ght=robs+guide it has my PDF for aligning RGB lasers and should help you understand what is needed to get good alignment. Some people have nightmares over alignment but if you follow simple rules then its a doddle.

    Hope it helps

    Rob
    If you need to ask the question 'whats so good about a laser' - you won't understand the answer.
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  3. #3
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    Default

    alignment is the hardest part

    good luck
    Eat Sleep Lase Repeat

  4. #4
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    Default

    Not if you think carefully about what is required and understand exactly what you must do to get it right.
    Rob
    If you need to ask the question 'whats so good about a laser' - you won't understand the answer.
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Laserists do it by the nanometre.

    Stanwax Laser is a Corporate Member of Ilda

    Stanwax Laser main distributor of First Contact in UK - like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/FirstContactPolymerCleaner
    www.photoniccleaning.co.uk

  5. #5
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    ive done it a few times now and its still a bitch to do.

    but maybe its just me LOL
    Eat Sleep Lase Repeat

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by stanwax View Post
    It may be best to shim the lasers with ally plate to get them to be the same height, as unfortunately even a set of lasers from one manufacturer does not ensure the beams will match up heightwise so its likely you will always need to adjust this.

    Rob
    I agree. We've found that sometimes the beams are not exactly "straight" coming out of the laser, depending on how the collimation has been setup etc...

    We've used thin (1mm) bits of aluminimum plate to raise or lower the lasers, with heat paste to provide a nice medium for heat conduction.
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  7. #7
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    Question

    Where can one get 1mm slices of metal for this? I tend to use a razor blade sometimes.
    Love, peace, and grease,

    allthat... aka: aaron@pangolin

  8. #8
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by aijii View Post
    We've used thin (1mm) bits of aluminimum plate to raise or lower the lasers, with heat paste to provide a nice medium for heat conduction.
    Actually, we use 0.5mm aluminum dood

    Allthat:

    I just got the thin stuff at the local monster hardware shop, but you would be able to find a range of even thinner stuff at a hobby shop.
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