Hi,
Yes, I made one just like this, it works well for me.
There has been a lot posted here on IIS on the subject, so you may be interested to read about it.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...archid=1025187
Some laser collimation units are manufactured to be very robust, and are said not to require regular collimation themselves, although they cost a bit more. I have no experience with those.
I have the cheaper kind of unit from Bintel
https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Product.aspx?ID=6737
and have found this with it:
- the laser dot actually is an oval, an effect of the simple pen laser unit in it
- changing the batteries causes it to go out of alignment
- turning the laser on/off screw too much can cause it to go out of alignment. I try to turn this screw only just enough for operation when on.
Keeping all that in mind, I have found it suits me well. I find it is very reassuring to be able to gain some idea of whether the laser unit is pointing straight.
This jig method is not perfect though. For instance, it supports the laser unit at 4 places (in 2 V-blocks), whereas when in use, it is supported only circumferentially at one end. So this could introduce an error. Also, the jig is usually made of wood, which is not exactly precision stuff.
Out of curiosity I took my Bintel laser unit to a measurement lab where I worked, and measured the runout (or concentricity error) between each end of the laser housing, and found the error to be about 0.01mm.
That error translates to a "wander" of the laser dot of about 0.5mm over the 6m distance from the alignment jig to my garage door, which is where I measure the alignment or lack of it. So it is negligible in my case. Given the fuzziness of the laser dot and its shape I was satisfied with that.
Cheers