This alignment works for a laser where the tube is mounted on the gantry, like a Gweike Cloud, OMTech Polar or even a Glowforge. It will not, however, work for a laser where the tube is mount on the frame of the laser and mirror 1 to mirror 2 is not a fixed distance. Excellent explanation, however, on how to align a gantry mounted laser tube!
is the final setting to determine the center point done on the screw setting miroring 1 which is adjacent to the laser tube head. I am frustrated because I haven't been able to determine the center point of the laser
You can't just do this for a single position... When setting the 2nd mirror, you need to make sure it is centred when it is closest to the tube and also when it is farthest away, so in other words when the gantry is close to the back of the machine and when it is right at the front. You then need to do exactly the same when aligning the 3rd mirror... It might be perfectly centred when closest to the 2nd mirror but way out of alignment when it at the other end of the gantry. This can be a time consuming process, not to mention frustrating but it needs doing properly...
Thank you for information. Yes mirror alignment takes time especially for new users. In this video, the CO2 laser tube is installed on X gantry (not at back of the machine) and the laser tube moves simultaneously with X gantry. Comparably it is easier to align this machine than to align a machine with laser tube at back of the machine. But in a word, the final goal of mirror alignment is to get laser dot centered on the third mirror and finally full, round, and centered from the laser head tip. Here are video guides for align machines with laser tube at back: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5B5BW2wyqo8.html, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qszcGfiwruk.html
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