Several folk have expressed concerns about operating time. These things seem to use very little power. I needed only 2 lasers for my purposes and have them both on a single USB. Plugged it into a little el cheapo pocket-size battery pack that I got for free at a Chamber mixer. Just left it on to see how long it would last. After 10 hrs on continuously, it was still going strong and I had to turn it off and leave. The battery pack still has 3 of 4 indicator lights still on - did not even need recharging. Not sure many shops would need more on time than that. And thanks for the detailed tutorial. I'm not at all handy and It was easy to put together. Such a great idea. The 4-way ball joint pieces are about 50-75% more expensive now, but still more than worth it. But, I suspect the two way ones would work as well. Cheers!
@@anthonyjones8076 thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I never had any issues with overheating, or excessive power drain either. Glad to set up worked for you!
When I saw $300+ for Hotronix laser system I was like forget that! Then I found your DIY! This is going to be perfect. FYI: thanks to BIDINflation total for all parts (except usb battery) Just over $70 + tax . Under $50 would have been awesome but still a great value IMHO. Thanks so much for taking the time to share this.
So glad the video was helpful! Ya, unfortunately, virtually everything he jumped - quite a bit. I was just rewatching some footage for another channel I’m working on. I was in New England in October and remember thinking, “man, gas up here is noticeably more expensive.” In the video, it’s $2.55 😂 Even before the Ukraine invasion I was playing $3.30! Paper, wood, and metal are nuts! No knife-making for a while! I really hope your setup works out well for you! Cheers
Thanks for the upgrade. I just watched your first Video and thought what a great idea. Just check online to find what I needed locally not living in the US the rate of exchange plus shipping is way over the top and I don't think harbour freight ships outside the US and I could not find the same type of laser as you had in your video. But with this upgrade, I can get most items from Wish and the rest local. Thanks two thumbs up.
Hey! That’s awesome! So glad you were able to find a workable solution. I hope you can find everything you need and your setup works well for your needs. Cheers!
The Monitor bracket is great, a pity I can't say the same for the lasers. They came with batteries almost flat so bought new batteries which made no difference to the weak output from these lasers .43 mw. I had to turn the lights off to even see the beam. I've now found lasers on eBay with 30 to 100mw for the same price & they come with a better bracket & a plug in power supply.
Great! I’m glad you were able to find an alternative solution that works for you. I had to clean some residue off of the batteries and make sure they were tightened all the way down as I had similar issues. I believe in this video I show one of them has a loose connection and didn’t always stay on or focused. That’s why I bought extras. I created this video to illustrate an affordable that runoffs USB power supply via power block or battery pack. This has been my new go-to, and is far superior to Harbor Freight set up. The other is just a little bit more affordable and convenient. Cheers!
@@OneDegreeLife Hi again, I bought a pack of 5 x 5mw redline Lasers off Bay, they are certainly better than the harbour ones but still not bright enough. I probably should have bought much higher mw lasers. Have you found a laser module that is bright in daylight? If so what mw power should I buy. I've read that a green laser is much brighter than red. I'd love your suggestions. Cheers Bernie
@@berniesherman4444 Hello, again! I'm sorry you're having difficulty finding a solution for your setup. I don't work in direct sunlight, but have worked near open windows and still haven't had any issues. When working with darker fabrics, black for example, with more ambient light, the lines aren't AS easy to see, but it's still not causing me any issues. I'm far from a laser expert and when I set out to figure out a cost-effective solution, I was specifically looking for something that would be low power for use with a battery bank or USB wall plug since I had several of those already. While brighter would certainly be better, I've, again, not found this setup limiting. What I DID find when I was looking at options was that the lasers I could find that WERE brighter based on the output readings would ALSO be more complicated to power AND many had limited operating times because of heat. They were also $30-50 PER laser which more or less eliminated the cost-effective quality and knowing the operation times would be limited (I usually need at least 1-2 hours), this made it a no-go for MY focus. There were others I found that were rated slightly higher on output, but I'm not sure a 10% boost would have been noticeable. So, when it came down to an EASY fix that was CHEAP, this setup is what I went with. On the COLOR, yes, I agree, green is going to be brighter in general, esp. on darker shirts because of the contrast. So black, navy, even dark green and esp. red, it's going to provide more of a difference and make it easier to see - assuming the power rating is decent. When I was looking at them at the time, there were FAR fewer options and they tended to run more money, so I settled on red as it seems to be the standard for heat press use anyway. On my power tools, green is DEFINITELY better. Bu those are HIGH POWER devices and run times are VERY short by comparison. I've looked from time to time and if I can locate a decent option, I might do a comparison. This is ALL the data I have man! Sorry I can't be of more help. If I DO come across a better option, I'll shoot another video. Good luck!
I use the harbor freight lasers, but this way is great but I was unable to get any of the links you set up plus the layout. You have another site I can download?
Hummm. The links in the video description are all there. The platan download is there for sure, I just double-checked it. The links for Amazon, etc., are also there. However, I have been getting a lot of messages from people purchasing them and it might be that they are sold out?
I think most USB cables carry a similar current. I use the mini because I had several of them laying around and they’re not as commonly used on newer devices. A standard cable for say a printer or a micro USB may work as well. TBH, I haven’t tried it though.
Mine are still working fine. But I don’t use them every day. No issues with long jobs though. Maybe some other users can attest to their experience. Since the can be plugged into a USB power block OR a battery bank, they’ll go MUCH MUCH longer than the little button cell batteries, and they’re better quality. It was the best economical solution I could find.
Great video. I was looking at the hottronix but this is great and I just ordered everything. With four lasers I plan to wire and just plug into a kindle or apple plug. Would you suggest wiring just two together and having two plugs or all four to one plug? I'm assuming one plug could run two beams. Most of the time I may only need two beams. thanks.
Awesome! Yes, when I had other outlets available, I just ran them into an extension cord. Personally, I think two lasers to a single USB is about ideal. Like you, I didn't always need 3-4 beams, but usually two. So, I simply put the two most used beams on one wire and then the other two on the second one.
@@OneDegreeLife I bought all the parts using your system and it works great. I did wire two lasers together on the side arm and then use a third on the back arm, both with plugs so I don't need the batteries. Amazon had a four pack of lasers, 4 pack of the swivel mounts and 4 pack of the sleeves. The one issue I find is on my swing away press I can't really feed the shirt on so I just have to lay it on top of the platen and I place it with collar at the top so I am placing the transfer right side up so I'm not looking at it upside down, if that makes sense. I am mostly doing tri blends and they don't show a center fold seem so if you don't get the shirt on perfectly then your design can still be off even though you have all the lasers lined up right. It's more a problem with larger shirts Xl and larger as they have the most material hanging over the edges of my 15x15 platen. Also more of a problem with designs that have a straight line, like the word 'volunteer' on the back. I had a hard time with these not being straight. Not because of your system but because of the shirt placement. Any suggestions? Only thing I think of is to fold shirt in half and put in my own fold line but that really slows things up. Thanks for doing this.
@@dericjaques3595 It took me a bit to get used to doing shirts upside down, so I know what you’re saying. Like you mentioned at the close, folding a shirt long ways and then quick pressing a crease is a good way to find cebter. But, as you’ve mentioned, it’s also takes extra time per shirt. Doing 10 isn’t a big deal. You start getting up in production numbers and the delay adds up. Accuracy can introduce bottlenecks and hitting the mark in larger shirts where it is harder to see the overall picture on the platen takes away some of the “eyeballing”. Other solutions are things like tag placement. If you know your brand runs true center or is, say, aligned to the right or left by a set margin, that can help. Of course, this also assumes all of the tags are placed the same over inventory. Also, the longer the shirt, the harder to hit center as you go down the shirt because of lower fabric positioning. Some people like T squares for shirts that allow you to center the collar and then run down to a point - bit the fabric still needs to be on the platen straight. Finally, there are collar lines of varying sizes that allow you to place a U-shaped Templae at the base of the collar arch that will show you center. In any of these setups, using your vertical laser will help get a constant line through the fabric. If you use the T square for example, you can line the laser up with it and then you’re good to go. However, you’d still need to get the fabric placed properly. My only solution for that - if not making a crease where you can see/quick measure from each edge inward at the bottom of the platen - is the pinch the fabric at the side seam, then eyeball out equal distances on both sides, if that makes sense. Outside of pressing a crease and quickly measuring the base distances, almost any other “tool” does involve some estimating. Unfortunately, I don’t personally know of another solution that is as/or more accurate that is also more time efficient.
@@OneDegreeLife Thanks and right now I'm pressing 400 shirts over the next few days so on the ones that I need to place 'volunteer' on the back then I may just have to press in a crease otherwise I end up with about 20% that look off kilter. I always like designs that have a circle or no defining straight lines as the eye tends to be more forgiving on getting it exactly straight. That all said I give you A+ for thinking this laser system up, it's really great.
@@dericjaques3595 it definitely can be a pain, but where “off kilter” can be more easily identifiable, I think the extra effort is worth it. Thank you for your feedback and best of luck!
Sorry. Been under the weather. I don't have a larger pattern. If you measure out half an inch extra on both sides and fold the paper there, it could help you in a pinch. Hopefully the assembly came out well for you!
Thanks for the heads up. I knew they were out of stock for a while, but now it looks like it's offline. These look like the exact same thing in a 2-pack.
Nope and yes. Now that I have THIS setup, I actually wish I had the single arm version, but it’s a preference. I preferred the dual mounts when I was using the first version I had with the harbor fright lasers. I’m using FOUR lasers on ONE mount plate here. So it’s totally doable. The 2 monitor version just offers more flexibility if you want/need it. As far as the lines go, yes, not a problem. All you need to do is tilt, rotate and then focus the beam along a horizontal or vertical, than do the same in the opposite direction and they’ll intersect at the desired point. I aim 2 in each direction to make 2 crossed patterns. Check out 19:30 in the video to see how to make straight line beams intersect.
Depending on the size you have (deeper = larger opening typically) you may just need to mount your stand a little more toward the front of the table so the lasers have a better angle. In fact, Hotronix demos there’s in a clam unit if you want to check it out. It’s more about placement than anything else.
No, you don’t have to. I put them on one plate for this video, but in my day-to-day, I have 2 on one and 2 on the other. I like the vertical lines from the top of the platen and horizontal from the side, but it really makes no difference. Some people have commented on running even more beams. You could run up to 8 with the dual if that’s your thing. Entirely up to the end user. Just wanted to share my setup.
Hey, I'm almost done building my laser system using all of the materials you suggested. My biggest hurdle will be making the hole in the monitor plate a little wider. For some reason, the small rig magic arm doesn't fit in the hole (luckily I have a drill press). Also, just an FYI, on the measurement guide you provided, I think you made a mistake for the labeling of the yellow line (probably should be 3.5 inches from the collar line, not the center). But.... anyone with a little common sense could figure that out.. Just giving you a heads up.
@@themotivationjuice Thanks for the heads up! I was changing some links the other day, and I may have accidentally linked to an original version of that platinum design. I will double check it when I get home, and update that. I’ve actually just transitioned to a single arm monitor stand myself, because I’m upgrading my press type. Thanks again!
You can try Staples or Kinkos or anywhere that can print you a 13x19 sheet. That’s the file size. Make sure they print it scaled to 100% to ensure the measurements are accurate. The actual diagram will be 13x15 when folded/trimmed. 15 inches wide is perfect for getting the measurements since the length top bottoms is continuous.
Yep. Depending on the size you have (deeper = larger opening typically) you may just need to mount your stand a little more toward the front of the table so the lasers have a better angle. In fact, Hotronix demos there’s in a clam unit if you want to check it out. It’s more about placement than anything else.
Exactly. My comment on the video got erased and didn't realize that before posting it. V1 of this was running battery-powered beams, so this was an adaptation to THAT model should people need that. I work near a 120 outlet, for example, and Hotronix recommends that ONLY the press use that power source. I don't have another one very close. I could run a long cord of course, but this was easier for me. But yes, a USB power block, or extension cord with USB built in would maintain power and eliminate the powering off. You're correct. Cheers
@@OneDegreeLife pretty much anything that would be useful in a work from home scenario has increased in cost, monitors, monitor stand, desk, etc. over the last year or so. Great Video and concept, I am going to use this info to setup my own version. much better than some other videos that had a similar idea, but poorly executed. Your idea and variations are spot on in my opinion. Cheers.
@@thomashughes8838 Thanks for watching and commenting, Thomas. Yes, I've noticed that too, and it appears that some supply chains have bottle-necked or cut off some supplies completely. I've been trying to update the list with alternatives that will possibly work, but it's getting tougher to find good solutions. Best of luck in your build and I hope your end product works for your needs! Cheers
All good I figured it out. Set it up day before yesterday. I think I’m going to mount it from above my press. Won’t have to mess with it all at that point and have my space back on my table lol but it works great
