Has anyone tried the Renzetti laser on a Clemens lathe?

Jim yes and it fits fine, no problems excellent service from Renzetti also

Yes. Andy Renzetti was the guest speaker at the October meeting of the Central Florida Rodcrafters. The laser was demonstrated on a Clemens lathe and worked fine. The thread carriage and two different motor setups were also shown. The quality of all of the products is great and the thought behind the design is pretty amazing.

Who came up with that design (Laser)? Just curious.

Laser alignment for guides is not new. I know one local rod builder who has been doing it for about 5 ot 6 years now with his own homemade unit. But the particular unit that fits on the lathe was designed by Andy Renzetti. I also like the fact that he is using a laser with an eliptical beam so you never have to move the laser. The beam will illuminate from just in front of the headstock on out to about 25 feet in an unbroken line.

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I built a device to hold a laser pen about 8 or so years ago. It works fine, but I guess I just found that the set-up and alignment of the unit itself took too much time. I have seen other laser set-ups that other rod builders have put together and it seems they would have the same problem I had. I guess the advantage of the Renzetti unit has a long to do with the fact that you are fastening it to a machine that is also holding the rod. Everything is one unit. I can see the advantage to this and on such a lathe it is probably a worthwhile tool.

Maybe I'm missing something or a little slow, after you make your marks on your lathe bed and get your lazer line what's next to align your guides. The Renzetti lazer fits my Clemen's set up well, guess I'm a little dense in making it all work.

Gene,

Actually I can see his point - a free standing laser might be hard to align over a free standing rod. But with the new laser attachment affixed and aligned on the lathe, the whole endeavor is reduced to a "click" of a button. The initial alignment need never be repeated. The eliptical bean shines over and "around" the rod supports. Nothing to move or fool with, other than any mis-aligned guides.

When Andy left me one of these tools, it was something I didn't really figure I'd use - I have aligned my guides by eye for years and can do pretty well that way. But I have to admit it works better than I expected and is a nice addition to the lathe. With it, I was also able to see that my bed sections were slightly out of alinment and rectified that in minutes, once and for all. Great tool.

One thing that should be mentioned - not only should you not look directly into the laser beam, but the bed sections of the lathe are quite shiny and really reflect the light beam as well. So you might want to be careful there as well. I really do not know the long term effects of looking into a laser pen beam, but assume it is not a good idea. Be careful with this tool and get whatever eyewear is recommended, if any.

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Just out of curiosity, would this laser alignment tool be any more useful if the base was designed to fit into a reel seat rather than on the lathe? This would make it more universal and assure alignment between the reel seat and guides.

I have two of the older versions which were designed to be used with the reel seat, the problem is that with a free standing arangement you will find out just how unstraight your blanks really are,the Renzetti version works much better.The slighest deviation will throw off the guide alignment with the free standing system.

On the lathe, you can use enough rod supports to bring the rod into a straight alignment. With the optical beam, the light will illuminate the entire length of the rod without being interupted by the rod supports to any great degree. In the event that a guide is located just behind a support wheel, raise the top wheel up and the guide will be struck by the beam. Again, what I thought was more of a gimmick appears to be a valuable tool.

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