March 9, 2026
Description
Many of the laser pointers you can buy from amazon from china are going to contain an internal barrel shaped laser diode and small circuit board... like this one:
Once you liberate the internal electronics from the battery connecting tube, you may want a way to mount it to another substrate. This thing can help. I had already begun to build a laser kaleidoscope with several DC motor mounts, so it seemed like a good idea to reuse the design file from that and resize the cavity to 13mm to accomodate the laser. It worked great! I have included a slot at the top for a zip tie to cinch the two parts closer for a friction fit, but in reality the size was close enough to the diode that I was able to pry the two halves apart slightly, insert the diode, and it was clamped tightly automatically.
update: I've since encountered alternative laser diodes with slightly larger diameters, so I'm including them here in case that's easier for you than to resize the file yourself.
update 2: Cute overload!! I received a couple of laser diodes in the mail and they're only 6mm in diameter!!
Autodesk inventor fusion file included. Have you tried inventor fusion? It's pretty nice and it's free!
Category: Physics & AstronomyLicense:
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steve cooley
