Which lens springs do you prefer on your laser

[sopark4000]

Well I recently purchased an aixiz module with the lens included and I noticed that the spring to keep the lens tight was behind the lens inside the can as opposed to one of my other lasers which has the spring wrapped around the lens. I prefer the wrap around springs on the outside. I'm just curious what everyone else prefers. If you don't prefer either of them tell us what you do prefer.

 

[rhd]

Apart from the external spring that SurvivalLasers sells, where have you seen external springs before? I've often thought that would be neat to try out, but $5.76 for a single spring is sort of crazy talk

 

[sopark4000]

Apart from the external spring that SurvivalLasers sells, where have you seen external springs before? I've often thought that would be neat to try out, but $5.76 for a single spring is sort of crazy talk

Actually I was talking about the survival laser springs. I didn't realize that the outer springs were that rare. I'm going to home depot tomorrow to try and find some springs that aren't $5.76 that I could use as a wrap around. They are very neat in my opinion and I also feel like the springs inside the can must have some kind of effect on beam profile etc. I'm sure it's a negligible effect but still an effect.

 

[bennett326]

i just use Teflon tape get some of that while your at Home depot if you havent tried it before :beer:

 

[DrSid]

Yep .. no spring and teflon tape is way to go.

 

[Kookapeli]

What them 2 said great stuff

 

[sopark4000]

I have heard a lot of people talk about using the teflon tape and I want to try it but i have also heard people say they have had problems with small shreds sometimes getting onto the lens or the diode window and melting. I do want to try it though so how do you recommend I do it. Put it around the whole lens? Just the spots where the lens will be threaded into the can etc?

 

[Kookapeli]

just the bottom half of the threads, put it on backwards so when you put the lense on it doesn't twist off

 

[sopark4000]

Went to home depot and purchased a $4 assortment pack of 84 small springs and I'm about to go through them and see if one of them will make a good replacement for the survival laser external lens spring.
It comes with 4 of each size so I am nearly positive one of them will fit which means I will have gotten 4 external lens springs for less than the price of 1 survival laser spring. I'll get back to every one when I'm done.

 

[sopark4000]

Well I went through the package and I found 3 different sizes of springs that will all work. So basically I got 12 lens springs. I couldn't find a link to the item on the home depot website but I found it in the same section as as all the door knobs. I did find a similar item from harbor freight that is the same price and has 200 springs. 200 Piece Assorted Spring Set
So I hope this was helpful for any of you that were interested.

EDIT- I take that back the harbor freight item is $6.99 for 200 springs but either way chances are you would still get at least 15-20 springs that would work plus you also have a bunch of springs in case you need them for something else

EDIT- Before I made this thread it didn't occur to me that very few people have used an external lens spring (unless you own a laser from survival laser) but hopefully some people will give it a try now. IMO it is much better than a spring inside the can because the spring inside the can gives you way to much wiggling. Now I'm going to try the teflon tape with an external spring on my desktop testbed laser.

 

[rocket689]

I've never tried the outer spring, but I'll give it a whirl and see how I like it.

 

[sopark4000]

As I said IMO it is a much better option compared to the spring behind the lens. Maybe it would be better if the spring behind the lens was a bit stiffer and a bit wider............................ that sounds dirty.

If you try the external spring tell me what you think.

 

[Fiddy]

i use the survival lasers external springs, i bought a couple of them, they work great, much more stronger/stiffer/springy than the thin aixiz internal springs, only down side is their price IMO.

I only use lens springs on the focus adapters where it doesn't require the focus adapter to be flush mounted to the heatsink because the springs when compressed leaves a gap between the heatink and focus ring which is undesirable.

I also noticed using Teflon tape with the survival lasers external spring (i was lazy and didnt bother removing the tape) adds the precision feeling of the focus adapter.

 

[sopark4000]

i use the survival lasers external springs, i bought a couple of them, they work great, much more stronger/stiffer/springy than the thin aixiz internal springs, only down side is their price IMO.

I only use lens springs on the focus adapters where it doesn't require the focus adapter to be flush mounted to the heatsink because the springs when compressed leaves a gap between the heatink and focus ring which is undesirable.

I also noticed using Teflon tape with the survival lasers external spring (i was lazy and didnt bother removing the tape) adds the precision feeling of the focus adapter.

Yea when I get home from work today I am going to put some teflon tape on my 445nm from Survival laser. Should help get rid of the small amount of shifting thats left with the external spring.