Slow probe solution

Guys, I aded another accessory to my shapeoko pro. I put a laser with crosshairs on the side of it! I have a video here on how I installed it.

The probe that carbide has is just WAY too slow I needed something I could quickly reference from my desk that’s like 4 feet away from my cnc.

I used a Multicam machine the past 8 years at my day job that had a similar laser with crosshairs and I loved it. So, I brought it to my desktop machine.

I went and looked at their page. Seems it is only for the Pro. I would like something like that for my SO3. It would save putting in a vee bit to line X and Y. I use the center a lot and would save the extra steps to insert the vee bit. Looks like a good accessory for the Pro.

Guy, I assume with a few holes drilled you could easily mount this to your SO3.
Looks like it just mounts to the side of the spindle mount.
I assume there is some calibrating & squaring needed.
The laser line looks awfully fat in the pics / videos. Is this just meant to get “somewhere in the ballpark” ?

Yeah I focused the laser after. The camera distorts it too.

There is a little Gcode for the quick actions that make it super easy

Yeah sorry my dude. I just have it for the pro. Might expand to it later

Cool stuff, never enough lasers.
I rolled my own a few years ago

But somehow I ended up not using it very often (not sure why, it is convenient, just not so much so that it changed my natural workflow)

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My two cents on the fat laser line. When I use a laser or shadow line for other projects, I never use the middle of the line. I use the edge of the line for a more accurate point.

I would do something like calibrate it for the upper right corner of the laser intersection point. Move the laser until it just barley starts to hit the lower right edges of the project board. So on the edges of the beam pattern not in the middle of the light.

Cheers

Good to know. I started looking at the lasers online as well, but none of them tell you how wide the line is.
So this would be good for jobs where you set the zero close to the corner & then cut the perimeter of the piece. Not so good when you’re trying to hold tight tolerances.

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