Building alignment fixture

Hello all, new to the forum, and not too knowledgeable about lasers.

A while ago, I built myself a front end alignment toe gauge using a green pointer laser (the dot type) to check the toe angle, and it worked great. Now for my next project I will need a (preferably) green line laser to use for establishing the center line of the vehicle, and another for a parallel line alongside the car, so that I can take wheel angle measurements relative to the center line.

I've tried looking online at several different lasers, but I figured you folks with more experience could point me towards a good choice. If you can picture this laser sitting a few inches off the floor, in front of, or behind a car, shooting a beam parallel to the wheels, and a steel rule measuring the distance from the beam to the rims. My concern is the beam width at 15 feet or so, because I would rather not have a fat fuzzy beam if possible, and the fan angle? Is that the included angle that the beam comes out of the laser?

I appreciate your help, and will clarify more if need be.

Thanks,

Twotime

Most 532nm lasers have excellent divergence. The beam width at 15' should be no bigger then 2mm+-, W/1mm aperture width.
Just make sure the laser you get is not focusable. The focusing lens adds to artifacts and haze around the beam.(unless you pay big $$$)
Almost any decent 532nm will work for what you want.IE: O-like.com, Rayfoss.com

I think what you are looking for is this....

2pcs 532nm 10mw Green Laser Line Module/Industrial/Lab on eBay.ca (item 260536878392 end time 13-Mar-10 12:19:42 EST)


If you want a more defined line... I would suggest a RED Laser with
an adjustable Focus lens before the line gernerator optics...


Jerry

lasersbee said:

If you want a more defined line... I would suggest a RED Laser with
an adjustable Focus lens before the line gernerator optics...


Jerry

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. The green laser looks good, and I'm interested in learning more about the red laser you mentioned. Can you provide a bit more information on it, or post a link to one?

Thanks,

Bob