[Tannehill]

If you were moving your primary mirror collimation bolts, and now note that things don't seem to focus (stars don't become pinpoint, but small blurry dots?) it could be because the system is so decollimated that it mimics an out-of-focus image. The thing that threw me was you said it does work with the paracorr taken out.

Don Pensack's article is a good resource re collimation. If you are looking for good basic gear for collimation, and already have a (non-barlowed) laser collimator (are you sure the laser itself is collimated?), then a sighttube and a chesire will get you "very good". Such "very good" will be more than enough if you have an f6 or slower scope. Excellent collimation would then, I'd argue, need the addition of an autocollimator for fine tuning the secondary as the final step. This would be particularly noticed if your scope is faster than f6, where the coma-free field of view is signficantly smaller and thereby more vulnerable to poor collimation.

I've got the full Catseye gear (sight-tube, chesire, autocollimator) and they are top. If you go that route, and also buy the Catseye mirror center mark, I'd suggest getting the "white" reflective triangle rather than the red. It's easier to collimate in the dark that way, and there is no real advantage to the red spot.