Hi NME, thanks for your kind words.
I will try my best to answer all your questions, but if I miss something just counter post my reply ;-)
First of let me outline my experiences with mounting on an MDF. One of the reasons I choose this medium as base is that this is purely a diy hobby for me, and all components and elements I have to make myself in my kitchen
Yeh I know its not the best "workshop", but I am rather limited when it comes to workplaces.
I would have loved an aluminum base but as you stated that exposes further complications which have to be conquered. I looked at various mounting solutions and found that MDF would suit my needs pretty well. There are several things to consider. Its cheap so drilling a few holes wrong or something like that does not cost a lot to remedy even if I had to buy a new piece of MDF. I payed 5USD for the piece I mounted it on. Common ground and isulating each source is another headache I dont have to worry about, which id probably the biggest advantages with this solution.
Until now it has not moved out of alignment at all. Everything is still mounted as it should be and I have only adjusted the dichros once, and that was when I put it all together! As for heat buildup I am currently lacking a IR termometer to measure things correct. The longest I have run the white combo (all lasers on) is close to 20 mins without anything really heating up (as far as I can feel) except for the drivers, but that is because I am pushing more voiltage than needed, optimal with the drivers I use is around 7.5V, but I am feeding it 12V
The heatsinks I use to hold my Aixiz modules dont even feel warm after 20 min, but ofc I would like to measure things correctly.
When it was time to mount the brackets that holds the lasers, I used an angle to make the alignment easy. Once the lasers and drivers where in place, I switched them on and determined the position of the mirrormounts in two steps: Green + red, and green + violet. I held the mirrormounts in place and marked where to drill the hole. All holes etc could have been calculated before even drilling the first hole, but this seemed to be the easiest way for me to do it. I had to finetune the adjustment after I mounted them with the adjustment screws on each mount.
Regarding the mirrormounts I made, I was surprised how well they worked
As earlier mentioned I have only adjusted them once, at installement, and they are working perfect for a hobby project like this.
I have to say it all went pretty much painlessly. But that could be due to the fact that I did a lot of preliminary testing with the drivers I made and some rather dirty mirrormounts made from a plastic angle instead of aluminum.
I think the mirrormounts in this thread were the 3rd try. First two I messed up due to shitty tools
After I bought new metal drills and a vice to hold the angle while working at it everything was a lot easier.
One of the hurdles I had to overcome was the fact that the focus part of the Aixiz modules dont have a tight fit, which means that the beam can move quite a bit in all directions. I was encouraged to try some teflon tape to remedy this, and after a few wraps, and rewraps I got it right. The best result will be if a even layer of tape is applied, and that took some trial and error
I might have missed something in this reply so ask away if there is anything else you would like to know. You can also PM me if you like.
Best regards
Nicki
