Wixey Laser being sold by Shopsmith

[DLB]

Better internet is coming for some. In the rural parts of Texas we are generally served by electric co-ops, but probably like you pay a real premium for marginal internet or go without. Recent legislation has enabled those electric co-ops to expand to provide affordable high-speed internet to the same customer base. We'll see, but I think we will realize a significant improvement in performance and/or price. Perhaps other states with large rural populations are aware of the problem and working on solutions.

- David

[rpd]

Thank you Ed,
My channel is just for my entertainment. I'm not seeking an money. I just want to share what I know and learn from others via comments. Here is the link you wanted.


https://youtu.be/MDE-wBX9SEs

Not sure if this link is right.

That works.

A more elegant method is to use the "youtube" function (last button) instead of URL, and it will show the video in the post. Use the actual url for the video and not the share link with the dot in the middle (youtu.be...)

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDE-wBX9SEs[/youtube]

[okiejim]

Thank you RickI willl look into this. I keep on learning more and more on this youtube stuff. Its fun but alot of work.
As you can tell I'm not a pro but I do want to share knowledge and thought the video parts might help others get engaged.

[BuckeyeDennis]

Thank you Ed,
My channel is just for my entertainment. I'm not seeking an money. I just want to share what I know and learn from others via comments. Here is the link you wanted.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDE-wBX9SEs

Not sure if this link is right.

Thanks for sharing the video, Jim. I'm going to make a laser mount like that for my 10ER dedicated drill press, just as soon as I get it reassembled.

[RFGuy]

Sorry it has taken me so long to be able to post an update on my Ver2.0 laser setup. I ordered some parts early this year and with COVID-19, deliveries from China experienced several month delays. So, I finally got around to finishing this little shop project now that I have all of the parts.

As previously reported on this thread by Ed, the Shopsmith mount for the Wixey laser isn't as stable and rock solid as one would expect (or hope for). Concern is that potentially vibration during use might cause the laser alignment to go askew and/or the mount might loosen enough for it to slip down on the waytubes. Ed pointed out that the Wixey laser mounts via 20mm dogs (non Shopsmith application). Given this and the feedback from Ron, John and Ed, I opted to make a wooden mount similar in style to what they had done previously, but this time to hold the Wixey drill press laser. I happened to have a 6/4 cherry offcut that was about the perfect size needed for this. Below are pics of what I created. The wooden mount has two 1.75" holes for mating to the waytubes and two 20mm dog holes (70mm spacing for Wixey). I installed T track and used a cam action hold down clamp to make installing/uninstalling this drill press laser easier. Another issue that bothered me with the original Wixey laser design is that the laser lines were very hard to see because I have a well illuminated shop that nearly washes out the Wixey laser. The original line lasers used are class IIIa, but only 2.5mW total power each. I upgraded mine to class IIIa, 5mW total power each line lasers. With double the laser power, it is considerably easier to see the laser lines now in my shop. Lastly, the lasers need to be adjustable in 2 axes for alignment of the crosshairs. For this, I ordered some off the shelf laser module mounts to make alignment easier. Time will tell if my alterations will result in a more stable laser drill press mount that doesn't need re-alignment frequently. I still have the replacement Wixey laser and Shopsmith mount, so if this doesn't work out, I can revert back to Ver1.0. If nothing else, at least this was a fun little shop project to experiment on and hopefully see what is possible for an aftermarket drill press laser.

nixey_cherry.jpg (430.03 KiB) Viewed 46503 times

nixey_cherry2.jpg (459.18 KiB) Viewed 46503 times

nixey_cherry3.jpg (617.53 KiB) Viewed 46503 times

[BuckeyeDennis]

I love that quick-release bracket latch! I definitely borrow that idea when I mount my Wixey laser on my 10ER drill press.

As for the Wixey mount, is it simply sitting in a pair of dog holes? Why not remove the dogs and simply screw the aluminum Wixey bracket to your hardwood way-tube bracket?

I'm also curious about yor laser mods. Did you modify and remount the Wixey lasers, or replace them entirely? And where might one buy all that hardware?

[RFGuy]

I love that quick-release bracket latch! I definitely borrow that idea when I mount my Wixey laser on my 10ER drill press.

As for the Wixey mount, is it simply sitting in a pair of dog holes? Why not remove the dogs and simply screw the aluminum Wixey bracket to your hardwood way-tube bracket?

I'm also curious about yor laser mods. Did you modify and remount the Wixey lasers, or replace them entirely? And where might one buy all that hardware?

Dennis,

Thanks. So, I ended up with 2 Wixey laser sets. The first one from Shopsmith was broken as part of a bad batch of Wixey lasers sent to Shopsmith from Wixey. Shopsmith replaced the "bad" Wixey unit and I believe Wixey covered the costs since it was their manufacturing defect. So long story short, I had some spare parts from one of these units sitting around for me to play with. Given this, I decided to reuse as much as possible of the original Wixey design that came with broken black plastic adjustment rings. This is kind of what prompted me to just reuse the 20mm dogs (could have easily gone without them) that come with the Wixey laser. I also got my new plunge router about this time, so it was good practice using it to make 20mm dog holes in my new laser mount. For the laser module mounts, they were my second attempt. At first, I attempted to repair the broken black plastic adjustment rings on the "bad" Wixey unit. I was going to install new lasers into these adjustment rings and fix them. Unfortunately, I wasn't successful in disassembling the laser module sleeves and without them you really can't achieve the 2 axis adjustment needed for laser alignment. So, I had already spent extra money by this point on new lasers anyway, so I opted to purchase a 3 axis laser module mount off of eBay, even though I am only using 2 axes on it. What I bought is overkill, so maybe look for 2 axis laser mounts if you go this route. IF I hadn't already had broken black plastic adjustment rings on this prototype, I probably would have installed the new laser modules into some brass sleeves and rigged up a little nub on the sleeve to mimic the original Wixey mounting of their lasers. Essentially the laser modules pivot inside the Wixey black plastic adjustment rings. So, if you want new (higher power) lasers AND you have a working Wixey laser unit to begin with, I would probably recommend utilizing all of it and just come up with a sleeve design to mount the new lasers in the existing Wixey adjustment rings. Well, I hope this is clear. If not, let me know. I kind of envision mine as a one off, not to be repeated - since I am playing with/re-purposing a redundant Wixey laser that I had. Still if there are any elements of my design that are useful to anyone, that is why I posted this to begin with...

P.S. One thought that I had when I decided to go with the 20mm dog holes is as follows....what if I want to move the placement of the laser, e.g. closer to the chuck or further away? Idea of using the 20mm dog holes was that I could create a wood mount with multiple locations of dog holes, if needed. That way, I could easily take out the Wixey and remount it. I opted for snug dog holes which is important to not affect alignments. This is about the only argument I can think of for why to keep the dogholes in this design...

5mW Total Power, 650nm line laser modules:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/1057

10mm Laser Module Mount, 3 axis:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Axis-Laser-M ... 2749.l2649

[BuckeyeDennis]

Very cool! And the laser hardware is much less expensive than I would have guessed. I might have to get one of those line lasers and make up a set of laser winding sticks. With the regular type, my aging eyeballs have trouble getting both the near and far sticks into adequate focus simultaneously.

So it sounds like you're just using the original Wixey for a laser-mount mount, and a power supply?

[RFGuy]

Very cool! And the laser hardware is much less expensive than I would have guessed. I might have to get one of those line lasers and make up a set of laser winding sticks. With the regular type, my aging eyeballs have trouble getting both the near and far sticks into adequate focus simultaneously.

So it sounds like you're just using the original Wixey for a laser-mount mount, and a power supply?

Thanks Dennis. I don't know if these lasers are powerful enough to work at distance, e.g. with winding sticks. However, that would be very interesting to see if you can make it work. Definitely worth a shot and please post your results if you create something with it. Just be careful with eyes around a laser powered winding stick. These lasers are class IIIa which are relatively safe around eyes, but you still have to be careful with reflections, etc.

Yeah, I am reusing the Wixey steel plate, battery case, switch, 20mm dogs, etc. What I am not using on this version is the Shopsmith mounting hardware (non-Wixey), the original Wixey lasers or the Wixey adjustable laser mounts. To this, I added the more powerful lasers and the 3-axis laser mounts. Yeah, the laser mounts are really quite reasonably priced and seem to be machined well but took forever to get them from China because I didn't count on delays due to COVID-19. Hope this helps.