Hi Rusty2
I feel your pain, have you considered collimating your telescope on a star or an artificial star. This is how I collimate my all my SCT that I have owned (currently have a 12” LX200) and have sold when working for a lead telescope shop here in Melbourne. Using this method of collimation I have had excellent results, and yes the focus is sharp. Have a read of the link I have provided, it pretty good and goes into detail about what you should be looking for in regards to collimating a SCT.
http://www.astrophoto.fr/collim.html
Good luck.
P.S. did originally use a laser to try and collimate an SCT found that collimating on a star work way better once you understand what happening.