Mirror mounts (28/05/09)
First up for modification was the rear mount (immediately after the laser tube itself).
This shows the disassembled mirror mount. At the bottom are the little spring retainers. This is a socket-head M3 capscrew, with a short spring and a little conical nut at the other end.
A view of the holes in the mirror mounts. The holes for the retaining screws need to be deepened with a 5.5mm drill bit to get more travel out the spring.
Here it is assembled. Another very important mod is to round off the tips of the adjustment screws - as they are, they have a sharp square end which just digs into the aluminium of the mount!
And now mounted back in position on the laser. I also replaced the two screws on the horizontal adjustment plate with socket-head screws and also made a larger washer (the rectangular plate). The two screws on their own simply pressed their way into the aluminium and made sliding imposssible. Now it's smooth.
Here we go again for the gantry mount - pic is before modification. Note the two screws which hold the mirror plate tight - no adjustment in these!!
And here it is after modification:
