I know they take away some power, but most of the time I'm nowhere near 100% anyway, and this is with my 80W tube in. Looks like I'm going to be doing a lot more engraving on aluminum (a good thing!) and having an accurate, precise red dot would be a huge help. The one I have now has gotten dirty or scratched over the years and the "red dot" is more of a "red haze" which makes it nearly useless.
I could fab up a little fold-away bracket to hold the red laser and beam combiner, but just wanted to know if any of you are doing this already. Does the combiner get very hot? What's the expected life span? Is the accuracy between dot and real beam what you were hoping for?
I appreciate any insight.