$20 Laser Cutter Crosshair Aiming System

Been enjoying my new Full Spectrum laser cutter. It’s a lot of laser cutter for $2500!

I wanted to come up with something better than the stock “aiming” laser pointer.

Issue is that since the stock aiming laser doesn’t actually follow the cutting laser’s path – it can only be calibrated for a given focal length.

This is a significant problem since engraving and cutting need different focal lengths – so you end up never being quite sure where the laser is going to go.

An optional “beam combiner” solves this by adding optics for an aiming laser that follows the cutting laser’s path – but it’s $300.

I did some meditating on a bike ride and came up with another solution which addresses this problem for the cost of two cheap laser levels ($20 or so).