Not a huge project. Modifying a line light

Inferno

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I have a need to replace an incandescent line light on a piece of equipment. The incandescent light is a 24vac bulb that shines between two surfaces and pits a line where there will be a cut.
The line is dim and very difficult to see but it's an industry standard for that equipment.
My goal is to have a laser line shine down between the two surfaces.

I started by taking a "brake light laser line" that I got from Ebay. It's a 10mw laser with a line lens on it. The one I originally bought was aluminum housing. I only had one, though, and I need two.

I went onto Evilbay and bought 10 more. (I always buy more than I need). Well, the 10 arrived but they are not as described and have a plastic housing. They are half a milliwatt, at best, and the line they cast is barely visible.

No worries. I have other lasers, but they are all dot lasers.

I get to tinker!!

I had a pair of 10mw lasers available that I usually use to wear out the cats. They run on 5v DC so I am using a 24vac to 5VDC converter. I made a connector out of a BA15S base that was scavenged from an RV LED bulb. When it's all done, I will just plug the connector into the bulb socket and the electrical will be done. That connection might take 2 seconds.
I also now had 10 crappy lasers with line lenses. The idea is to fit the 10MW laser modules and the lenses into one unit that I can attach to the machine.

I started with some 1" OD, 3/4" ID aluminum tube. I measured the laser modules and bore out the aluminum tube enough to get the laser module in there as well as some extra room to put a spacer ring to house the line lens. I used the same aluminum tube for all of it.

Below you can see the components and how they come together.

I made a ring an inch long for the lenses and then trimmed it into two rings on a band saw. Then I cleaned it up on the lathe. The OD of the ring is a little over 18mm and the ID is 17mm. I went slow when cleaning up the faces and it turned out great.

I might add to this thread as I build the rest of the components.

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