Laser Pointer Holder for 40W CO2 Laser

thingiverse

I recently acquire a cheap chinese 40W CO2 laser engraver/cutter. It's great value for its price but not user friendly. The machine do come with red dot laser side mount next to laser head. It's simple but never line up correctly to the actual CO2 laser light path. In the high end laser machine, it use ZnSe or GaAs lens as beam combiner. However, the cost of lens just way too expensive for this low-end machine. So I found [39188] have a great idea to make a lever to drop the red dot laser on the light path when the door is opened. And once the door is closed, the red dot laser will put aside to allow actual CO2 laser to pass through. The addition feature for this design is this also works like "Laser Beam Guard", when the lid is open, it will block the CO2 laser in case the laser misfired. Thus, I start to design my own lever holder and pivot holder for the chinese laser machine. I made the pivot holder be a "clip on" device so you can snap on the machine with out modify the laser machine and slide it left/right to adjust it's position. Instructions It's pretty simple and intuitive. Follow the [39188] for more detail I drill and tap two hole to install the spring so laser will drop down once the door lid is opened. These is not in the CAD design because the spring might be vary from what you have on hand. The extension spring I am using is from Harbor Freight "200 Spring Assorted" (http://www.harborfreight.com/200-piece-assorted-spring-set-67562.html)