Drill Press Laser Guide

[Rich Engelhardt]

Yes -I have a laser on my drill press. (GMC benchtop)
Yes - I use it pretty often.

No - if it went out I wouldn't replace it nor would I pass up buying a DP that lacked one.

[glenn bradley]

This Laser Center is held in the drill chuck. I use mine on my CNC Router and my Mill/Drill. The laser spot is adjustable all the way down to a diameter less then a pin.

http://www.lasercenteredgefinder.com/main.html

Now you're talkin'

[ian maybury]

Thanks Keith. The Laser Center looks like the business. Unless i'm missing something the big ace should be the convenience/elimination of the need for calculation. It should easily do anything needed in woodworking. Seriously tempted. A keyless chuck would be handy with it..

It's nice and short which is important re. quill travel, and it has adjustment. Quill runout as you say is a factor, but is a bit of a self limiting issue in that if the chuck has a wobble or the adjustment of the unit is a hair off the laser presumably describes a circle on the part and you can centre pretty effectively anyway. The drill or whatever will in that case whirl by whatever amount and upset the sizing of the hole, but that's nothing to do with the laser.

Hard to judge from this distance how accurate it might be possible to get down to, but with judgement it's probably possible to split the spot. Traditional wobblers take a fair amount of touch in use get down to tight tolerances anyway.

[David Ragan]

The chuck mounted laser....why didn't I think of that? Makes me wonder how well-what runout would be on a cheap office supply chuck-able laser pen (obviously hobbyists only)
i have some wiggler things.....what are they for? (They looked cool and were cheap)

[Keith Outten]

David,

I suspect that an office supply quality laser pointer might not be accurate enough assuming that the beam could be off by just a few degrees from the case that would be mounted in the chuck.
My Laser Center is a precision instrument and the beam will go completely across the shop and when installed in my mill drill or CNC Router you can adjust the beam diameter spot to the point that it disappears. I don't turn the machine on with the laser in the chuck, never thought of it anyway.
.