Greetings,
Well, I missed the unadvertised sale on the Delta 36-255L saw at Lowes for $229, wasn't all that impressed by the bevel scale on it anyway, and already own a pretty good 12" CMS already.
I AM interested in adding a laser guide to the CMS however. I like the looks of the LaserKerf, but those ridiculous blade mounted laser washers are a joke. Either way, I'm not ready to pony up $60 - $80 for a glorified laser pointer. But to be sure, I'm tired of trying to manually line up the blade with a cut line.
Being an electronics designer and pretty crafty at such mechanical things, I am pondering the prospect of gutting a $10.00 laser level, building a small AC power supply for it, and mounting it on the saw. Blade alignment mechanisms are not a problem, and the whole assembly could be potted in epoxy when completed.
I could use a standard $5.00 pointer, but would have to add a cylindrical glass refractor to make the dot into a line. This would work, but requires precision gluing of the assembly. The gutted laser level would be much simpler as I can pick up a cheap one for $10.00.
The whole job should take about 2 hours of free time and a few junk box electronic parts.
Has anyone tried this, and how did it work out?
Greg G.