With an under $50 laser, you can get great results. You should align your laser with a v-block until the dot doesn't move when you rotate the laser. The laser should fit snugly in the focuser. If there's play, put a loop of wide packing tape around it to increase the diameter.
I wasn't fond of the bar-shaped dot of my laser and tried to stop it down, using a foil sticker and a pin. This did not give me a pure, tiny dot, but rather a smaller dot with a large diffraction glow around it. What started out as disappointment turned to joy as the glow returned the shadow of my Catseye triangle to the diagonal face in my laser, allowing me to accurately collimate the primary. Just like a barlowed laser, this shadow did not move around as I moved the laser in the focuser.
So, for $35 I have an aligned laser with a built-in barlow capability, yet with a center dot still readable enough to align the secondary. Pretty good in my book.

- j