paint the red line...21st century style

[linear]

A picture says a thousand words, so...



I hacked apart a cruddy picture hanging level from HF. It was useless anyhow. I duct taped a couple D cells together to power it up, put a switch in line with the batteries, then mounted it all to a plywood scrap which I screwed to the rafters. It is 9 feet overhead, so it can't interfere with the work.

Obviously I don't work with the lights off, but the pics come out a whole lot more impressive that way, so here's some more:







Thanks for looking.

[Popeye]

Pretty neat pictures. Pat

[Pappy]

Cool pics, Pat! How well does it work with the lights on?

[linear]

It works okay with lights on. I have the area extremely well-lit. But it's a visible mark.

[steve-norrell]

Cool!

Three questions:

1. I assume the saw must be pretty solidly anchored to the floor. Space requirements dictate that I have to have mine on wheels and there would be enough movement to cause missalignment with a ceiling-mounted laser source.

2. Is there any risk of damage to the eyes with reflected laser light, such as off the tips of the blade or the blade guard?

3. Could someone make a kit to attach a similar device to the Shark? Now that would really be something!

Regards.

[Tundra_Man]

Pretty cool idea! I've got a cheap laser level that I wouldn't mind sacrificing for this purpose. Unfortunately, my saw is on a mobile base, so your rafter method of mounting wouldn't work for me.

[jwaterdawg]

Nice. Kinda spooky with the lights off and just in time for halloween.

[linear]

Cool!

Three questions:

1. I assume the saw must be pretty solidly anchored to the floor. Space requirements dictate that I have to have mine on wheels and there would be enough movement to cause missalignment with a ceiling-mounted laser source.

2. Is there any risk of damage to the eyes with reflected laser light, such as off the tips of the blade or the blade guard?

3. Could someone make a kit to attach a similar device to the Shark? Now that would really be something!

Regards.

1: It's just sitting on the floor, no wheels though. I'd imagine aliging the saw to the beam would be feasible if you have wheels on the saw.

2: I'm sure there's a risk, I figure it's comparable to using a laser level for any other purpose else though. Don't look right into it. Where to focus your attention while sawing is a big safety issue--I guess if there's a safety drawback it is from distracting the saw operator from the work. Personally I rehearse every cut with the saw off. It may also bear stating explicitly that I don't line the cut up with this, it's just a laser version of "paint the red line" so I don't trim my SMT fence.

3: One trick is that the line gets longer as you move away from the surface. I dunno if you can get a worthwhile line from shark-top distances. But it sure opens up a lot of "sharks with frickin laser beams" gag potential.

[gsmittle]

I wonder if you used a coupla car batteries could you make the actual cut with the laser...

g.

[jwaterdawg]

1:
3: One trick is that the line gets longer as you move away from the surface. I dunno if you can get a worthwhile line from shark-top distances. But it sure opens up a lot of "sharks with frickin laser beams" gag potential.

What about using a CMS laser attachment and a mirror on the underside of the shark? 'course dust would probably render it useless.

[jziegler]

Cool!

Three questions:

2. Is there any risk of damage to the eyes with reflected laser light, such as off the tips of the blade or the blade guard?

Regards.

I used to work for a company that produces equipment for fiber optic telecommunications, so I know plenty about laser safety. There are different classes of lasers, some are far more harmful than others. Looking up the class on a couple of laser levels, nothing is higher than a IIIR, many are in the IIM category. Anything with a I or II in the class is very safe, you'll normally blink before you damage your eye. If you focus some down (when they have a divergent beam) you can have problems. The IIIR can cause damage, but it's not too likely. Much safer than the IR class IIIB that I dealt with in the past.... Note that these classes are in the new system, label may be different, I learned the old system, looked up the new online.

So, there is a risk, but it's not very high, really not worth considering. Insert the usual disclaimers and all that fun stuff...

Jim