You got to get some of these

[rmonks]

I was at my local Tulsa Harbor Freight yesterday and saw this item  http://www.harborfreight.com/laser-marker-93242.html, and bought four of them. They have a magnet base and will stick right to your auto print arm. I have shirt order with pockets and this will be the ticket to printing in the correct position.
Hope this helps. Also someone somewhere posted a way to convert a battery operated laser to low voltage with an AC adapter, I need to see that again.

[bimmridder]

Thanks for the link. I'll be picking some of those up soon.

[Denis Kolar]

Pierre has some of them hooked up on AC adapters.

[dsh]

This was discussed at some length on the old TSPMB board.  I found you can push the button back through the screw on cap and remove it.  Solder a ground to the cap, and carefully solder a  wire to the battery spring in the body of the light.  You can stretch the spring a little to help.  Thread both wires through the hole in the cap and connect them to power.  The TSPMB board has you removing the front of the light and drilling a slot, etc.  I found the lens on the front doesn't always stay in place, or goes out of focus.  This method leaves the front intact.  The hard part is attaching the wire to the spring.

[sportsshoppe]

Blue Moon has the diagram on how to convert to phone charger... I use mine on my Inline numbering machine and it is Awesome.... Glad to see that they have them back in stock.

[Sbrem]

Blue Moon has the diagram on how to convert to phone charger... I use mine on my Inline numbering machine and it is Awesome.... Glad to see that they have them back in stock.

That sounds interesting, we have the Inline too. How do you employ it if you don't mind sharing?

Steve

[blue moon]

This was discussed at some length on the old TSPMB board.  I found you can push the button back through the screw on cap and remove it.  Solder a ground to the cap, and carefully solder a  wire to the battery spring in the body of the light.  You can stretch the spring a little to help.  Thread both wires through the hole in the cap and connect them to power.  The TSPMB board has you removing the front of the light and drilling a slot, etc.  I found the lens on the front doesn't always stay in place, or goes out of focus.  This method leaves the front intact.  The hard part is attaching the wire to the spring.

I will add that after using them for a couple of years now, it would be much better to do it without removing the front. I did look into it briefly, but since the ones I have are already wired, there is no point in redoing them. The front does loosen up with time if removed and some of my fronts are a little wobbly now.

pierre

[3Deep]

I did my lasers from bluemoons post awhile back and they work just fine

[Gilligan]

FYI... as with all things Harbor Freight... I also looked up and saw this and thought... don't know where, but I will find a place to use it!

Two days later I was lining up platens on my press and thought... HEY!!  Busted it out and, no worky.  Bring it back (Yep, $4 bucks and I'm bringing it back)... get another one... say wait...  lets open this right here.  Same.  Open another one... Same.

The switch wasn't working.  If you shorted across the batteries to the case it would come on.

They gave me a stupid HF card as a refund (yeah, $4.30 on that card)... thinking about it later I will just pick it up again and ghetto rig it if I have to because it would be worth it.

[Screened Gear]

FYI... as with all things Harbor Freight... I also looked up and saw this and thought... don't know where, but I will find a place to use it!

Two days later I was lining up platens on my press and thought... HEY!!  Busted it out and, no worky.  Bring it back (Yep, $4 bucks and I'm bringing it back)... get another one... say wait...  lets open this right here.  Same.  Open another one... Same.

The switch wasn't working.  If you shorted across the batteries to the case it would come on.

They gave me a stupid HF card as a refund (yeah, $4.30 on that card)... thinking about it later I will just pick it up again and ghetto rig it if I have to because it would be worth it.

I did the same thing. Then I put the batteries in with the flat side out and they worked. I had one that had too much clear plastic on it so the cap with the switch would not some in contact with the treads. Cut out the plastic and it worked fine.

[Gilligan]

I tried three and flipped batteries several times.  Tried without that plastic sleeve which of course worked but that was because it was shorting out against the case and bypassing the switch.

*shrug*

[Screened Gear]

You cut too much plastic out. You can tape the sides of the batteries and slide them in and it should work. (cheap china crap)

[Gilligan]

You cut too much plastic out. You can tape the sides of the batteries and slide them in and it should work. (cheap china crap)

I wanted to put the meter to the switch but I was in the store when I figured out what was up and oddly enough they don't have a meter at their disposal (I guess they couldn't spring for that $2 mutli-meter ).  I'm PRETTY certain that the switch connects the spring on the cap to the casing.  I'm VERY certain I had metal to metal contact with the cap to casing being screwed on.  So it SHOULD have worked IF the switch would function.  My guess is there was a bad bunch and the switches just weren't doing diddly.

At these prices how can they really have ANY QA going on?  I'm surprised I don't find a bloody finger inside one of these things.

[Gilligan]

Speaking of these guys... anyone know where you can get an uber cheap laser pointer in the same configuration?  I saw my buddy's SWF had a laser for the center point on his machine and thought... hell, that's simple!

I also saw the 10 needle brother/babylock has a camera with cross hairs... that is SWEET!  But it is more time consuming than a simple laser rig.

[ebscreen]

Sidenote. While cheaply constructed, I've had my HF lasers on continuously for a couple years now with no sign of weakening output.