Skysurfer
This is a common issue. The laser is only useful for a final "tweak" of the tilt of the mirrors, so it is no surprise that you got this result.
A collimation cap is quite useful for an intial setup, but a good cheshire will enable you to be more precise.
A good guide can be found here
http://www.astro-baby.com/collimatio...on%20guide.htm which takes the process right through without laser.
I find that with a solid tube I only needed to use the laser on a nighty basis to tweak it and do a full check every couple of months. With the truss scope I use the cheshire each setup and try to make setup identical each time. I number the struts and always tighten knobs in the same order to reproduce setup as close as possible.
Hope this helps
Malcolm