Help, laser practical application

I'm hoping someone can point me towards some products as google searching turns up mostly laser pointers, and light-show lasers.

I play a miniature war game (warhammer fantasy) which requires players to set up their army 12" from a table edge. Usually you mark it with beads, dice, coins, you name it and all is well. Well, I'd like to build a small nerd haven in my basement which would include a gaming table and a pair of lasers to mark the deployment area instead of manually measuring them each time. I just don't know where to get the lasers...

Need 1) I need to be able to put a lens on the laser to make it a bar. I've seen this done with pointers before where you can make smiley faces, hearts, random shapes, or just a plain bar. I could just shine a beam across the board but terrain is used in this game, and if any one puts a hill, building, or forest over a deployment line, it will block the laser. The laser must shine from above, and as such must be filtered to form a bar.

Need 2) I'd like to mount it, so that once its placed 12" from the board, and far enough to span the board, i don't ever have to measure that again. I don't want a hand-held laser.

Want 1) I'd rather it be powered by regular 110 v wall power so I don't have to replace batteries. (110 v is right... right?)

Want 2) I'd rather it be under $50, or at least under $100. Its only going to be turned on for about 10 min every week or so. I once had a laser pointer that cost me $20 that could do this, it just wasn't mounted, so I'm hoping under $50 isn't too much to ask.

Sorry for the long post, but thats the shortest I could explain things. Can any one point me in the right direction for products? Thanks so much.

Also, Red or Blue would be fine. Green would be bad as the table surface will be designed to look like grass, and green lasers won't stand out.

Hello and welcome to the forum!:wave:

Haha, I use to "shoot" StarWars-edition Risk figures with a green laser when they die in a battle.PEW PEW.:crackup:

Something like this should get you going:
$3.96 - Red Laser Module - Focused Line (3.5V~4.5V 16mm 5mW) - Red Lasers
You can power this with an appropriate wall wart transfomer.
Mounting it? Get creative.:na:
Does it have to be adjustable or will it be permanently fixed?

Haha, I use to "shoot" StarWars-edition Risk figures with a green laser when they die in a battle.

Click to expand...

I approve! :gun:

anselm said:

Something like this should get you going:
$3.96 - Red Laser Module - Focused Line (3.5V~4.5V 16mm 5mW) - Red Lasers
...
Does it have to be adjustable or will it be permanently fixed?

Click to expand...

Something like that is almost exactly what i'm looking for!. I'm still in the early planning stages and haven't figured out exactly how high they will be projecting from, but I'm guessing a 45 degree angle will be adequate. Alternatively I might use a very narrow dispersion and shine it at an angle from the side instead of above, but this might not work with a cheaper, less bright, laser. In either scenario permanently fixed is the way to go as the idea is to never need to adjust them.

Also, has anyone ever ordered merch from that site? It uses paypal, so i guess its somewhat reputable, but i'd rather a personal testimony.