Broken DX30!! help plz!

:-[ i bought one of these a few months ago while in HK, once i got home i found that these were mod-able. So i tried to open it after reading lots about how to go about it. Well i strugged constantly and along the way snapped multiple parts off!! the laser still works, but the focus part has snapped off so its not so much of a thin beam anymore. Wondering any chance i can fix this back to how it was?

i attatched a image below i found here which i circled to show which parts snapped off.

Like mentioned it works still but jus not focused like it should be.

help any1?

Those parts are made of brass - so unless you exerted an awful lot of force (which likely would have killed the laser), or stripped out some screw threads, the parts should be able to be re-assembled. Photos of your actual parts would help us figure it out.

Since it still lases green, all you need is some optics to fix up your beam... do some research here and on the web, you'll find lots of information about how these work and their parts.

In the future, remember this tip from an old tinkerer: take apart and try to put back together many things. But only take apart something you really care about if you know you'll be able to put it back together

DanQ

Some pics of the resulting parts would surely help.. also, by 'snapped off', do you mean you actually broke some brass component into pieces, or just unscrewed one, or pulled one out?

If the beam just comes out like a 'cone', it's probably just a focus lense in the wrong position and that can be remedied usually.

ok sorry for the unclear post.

i had ALOT of difficulty removing the cap of my DX30. In the end i totally snapped the cap off the laser. Not much of a bother to me because it worked the same with/without the cap.

BUT, then under the cap i was left with what is shown in the above picture, still stuck inside the housing tube. I tried to pull the laser off and in the process of a tug of war. The circled part in the picture snapped off. snapped off meaning its broken off the actual laser it was once attatched to! the laser still shoots green and is still bright, but more in a form of a blob. i can hold the lens part which snapped off and place it in a position in front of the laser to focus it agen but even so, its still not crisp like it once was.

what i would like to know is how can i fix this if its possible some how? get a lens from somewhere that i can glue on and focus? how much would it cost?

btw after snapping off each part, i noticed that its not like the other DX30's shown here. the cap is actually one part with the laser tube. That was the original problem as i never heard of it being in one piece before.

Any help i would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks

Did it snap off clean or is the broken piece distorted?
Is it broken right where it changes from large diameter to small diameter or part way along the thread?

The best I can come up with is to find a collar/sleeve that fits reasionably snug on the threaded portion and epoxy it in place, just be careful that no glue goes down the hole into the module.

BTW, they changed the design of these in recent times and the only way I have found to get them apart is to turn the end cap off in the lathe and then turn down the barrel until it releases the module.

Regards rog8811

*Edit* Just had a thought the threaded nose piece unscrews from the rest of the module, remove it carefully, take the lens out then you may be able to solder it together with a fine flame torch....remember to clean the brass with wire wool and use flux

Hmm... i guess it broke off but can be re-attached by glue, sleeve or some other method. But is there any way to adjust the lens inside the piece that came off?

Even if you somehow manage to reconnect the parts, i doubt they will be in exactly the same position as they once were. You do need to get the focal distance exacly right somehow, even 1/10th a milimeter off will result in pretty bad divergence.

If you look inside the lens piece, you'll probably see the lens in a sort of brass ring with 2 little slots in it. Usually, you can grip these slots (using pliers or something) and turn the lens to adjust focus.