Mitre Saw Laser Line

A useful source of LED/laser module power supplies is mobile phone chargers. The newer ones for lithium batteries tend to be 3.5V output and switched mode so they are both efficient and light weight. The average child will have about half a dozen spare from phones that went out of fashion after a few days use.

Hmm, mine doesn't work unless the blade is turning, which always seems a bit goofy - I'm not sure yet if it's powered from a widget run by the motor turning, or a step-down transformer / rectifier somewhere.

It's on the to-do list to move it to a separate switch (and power source if needed), though.

Know what you mean, however - I keep leaving the laser cross-hairs on my drill switched on in the same way. Another option might be to wire in a time-out circuit that'll shut the light off after some period of time after the switch was last pressed.

snipped-for-privacy@REMOVEbundy.co.uk wrote on 20/02/2009 :

No reason why it cannot be done, but makes it a bit cumbersome.

Wouldn't a time out circuit be be better, but using the existing batteries?

Change the on/off switch for a push button which operates a time-out circuit. Fail to press the button often enough and it switches itself off. There are few to be found on the Internet usually involving an FET on the output, they were a quite common addition for test meters before they started to include a battery saver circuit.

Rechargable batteries.

I'd always assumed they did run from the saw. Why would they design one with batteries?

Way too complex ;)

Laser cross hairs on a drill? What make/model is that? Are you licenced to drill?

Not sure if I can get to the wires in mine, but I will send an answer in the next 48 ish hours.

Dave

Ha - I can't remember off-hand, but it's some low-end pillar drill (given that the more costly "DIY" stuff seems to share headstocks, motors etc. with the lower-end I decided paying extra for a product that wasn't actually better seemed a bit silly!).

I was surprised at that particular feature, but it seemed like they all have it these days (at least this side of the pond).

It's a useful feature once in a while, I suppose - but I'm so used to using pillar drills that don't have it that I tend to forget that it's actually there :)

cheers

Jules