Laser alignment

The lack of a build table has worried me from day one. Not enough to sell my motorbike (the chief use of my garage space) but still something I need to sort out. But then I wondered whether there was a way of properly measuring the base. So with the help of an Ebay-special laser pen, I set something up.

First step, mount the laser;

This is a bit of metal clamped to the front bar, then the laser pen is clamped to the metal. This lifts the laser pen about 50mm off the front bar, and allows me to adjust the pen up and down. It also holds the 'on' button down. I used a combination set square to determine the height;

Then used a bit of red tape to mark the laser. I then moved it to the furthest point, and adjusted the laser until the measurement was the same;

A quick double check that the nearest one was still ok, and I was set. I then used the same measurement on all the other bars to confirm that they were the same height;

And they were! The laser itself wasn't perfect, but focusing on the centre of the laser got me at least to the nearest millimetre.

The next job is to determine whether there is any twist in the chassis. For that I'll use the same technique, but use a lens to spread the laser across a plane rather than just a point.