: Anyone know good tricks to use to verify the beam is actually coming straight out the laser unit? Having trouble with a new one I got, well - made actually. Is easy to adjust, but I'm finding it hard to figure a good way to verify beam is on-line with mechanical axis. Pretty useless until its right! Appreciate any ideas...

The simple and accurate way to align the beam in a colimator is to nest the colimator in a "V" block or you can use an eyepiece adapter if the fit is accurate. Mount the V block or adapter securely and shine the beam on a ruler about 50 feet away. Rotate the collimator in 60 to 90 degree increments and align the beam until the laser point shining on the ruler does not vary more than 1/8" at any rotation. This will align the beam axis with the collimator center axis if the generator is mounted in the center of the holder. With this repeatability at 50 feet, the collimator should be accurately aligned to be used in any instrument.