I have just re-aligned my 75 W laser after some re-building and was able to align the laser to some degree of satisfaction.
However the earthquake on Sept 4 has curtailed my plans to install an exhaust system outside on the street side of my workshop as I have yet to be assessed by the Earthquake Commission adjusters.(my house has suffered a moderate of damage).
Anyway I thought that I would continue work on my 100W re-build by performing an alignment on it also.
So with good intentions I started on the diode pointer as I wanted to treat the machine as a just-assembled machine as it had been involved in a fire after all, and I wanted the laser beam to be under control in an orderly fashion.
I struck a significant snag in this exercise.
In brief the pointer beam wants to land on the X-beam mirror some 10mm to the right of the sweet spot ..actually not on the mirror but on the clamp screw that holds the mirror clamp.
At this stage I could see the shape of the red beam centralised on the exit point of the laser housing.
Any adjustments that I made to shift the beam by use of the pointer control adjustment screws caused the pointer beam to be so off course that the beam bounces off the wall of the exit point (inside it)of the laser and caused a dispersed beam to light up the right hand side wall of the machine and a diminished intensity spot on the mirror and subsequently on a target fixed to the downward facing lens!
It is as if the lefthand end of the laser itself needs to be packed out from the rear mounting wall to swing the beam to my left as viewed from the front of the machine.
So here is the question....can anyone advise on this?
Regards Graham Symns