Hello everyone,
I have a 50w co2 laser machine and since yesterday been having an issue where the red dot pointer isn’t working properly. As shown in pic1. It’s kinda blurry/out of focus.
It’s just the pointer light. The laser is shooting properly.
It’s only making it difficult to accurately frame the things I’m engraving. Pic 1 also shows where the pointer is mounted in the red circle
Picture 2 shows how sharp the red dot used to be.
Hope someone can help me solve this issue.
Can I assume that your laser is in focus?
Did you recently crash the machine or perhaps hit something against the pointer? In any case, I’d suggest looking to see if something has gone out of place. You may have a bezel or other covering that has been displaced.
It’s also possible the pointer has gotten dirty. In any case, most likely something mechanical.
Thank you so much for your swift reply.
Yes the laser is in focus. I actually don’t recall hitting anything.
If something has shifted by bumping into something, what would be the first thing I need to check?
Any suggestions or troubleshooting this issue?
I would suggest removing the pointer and doing a thorough visual inspection. It may be obvious upon inspection.
If you want to check for debris before taking apart you could try cleaning with some IPA to see if that resolves it.
The focus lens has fallen off the red-dot pointer.
Most likely it’s stuck inside the aluminum clamp holding the pointer, but it may be lost forever in the honeycomb or chip tray.
The innards of the pointer look like this:
The little gray ring over on the right holds the lens, so you’re looking for something like that.
If you can find it, you can probably re-focus the pointer to a dot.
If not, you must replace the whole pointer. Fortunately, the modules are cheap & readily available these days.
I just opened the pointer head and the lens (little glass piece) is still there
The first 2 pictures I’m attaching here are the thing that has the little glass piece and the third one is the actual pointer thing.
When I removed the glass piece it shows a wide red light in rectangular shape. (Pic 4)
Does that lens have a crack in it? Can’t quite tell from the photo. If so, that could be the cause.
Actually that’s the first thing I thought of but after a closer look it’s clean and has no crack. 
Was the lens loose when you first looked at it? Does resecuring it improve the focus? Try at varying distances from material.
It wasn’t loose and unfortunately rescuring it didn’t change the focus. I have also tried messing with the height of the material and nothing changed
That’s odd. Is it possible there’s supposed to be another lens or filter that’s meant to attach to the end that’s missing?
Honestly I’m shocked how this happened very suddenly.
I’m gonna try to contact the Factory in China and hope they’ll reply and get me a proper answer 
Update:
So after contacting the factory and exchanging tons of photos and videos they decided to send me a red dot laser replacement for free (they actually sent me 2 pcs and I only paid freight)
Today they arrived and I immediately started working on the machine. The first thing I did was replace the glass piece only (attached)
AND IT SOLVED THE ISSUE!
I inspected the old piece even before posting here and didn’t see anything wrong with the naked eye. I even cleaned the glass “lens” multiple times with IPA. Apparently there’s microscopic dent/scratch or dirt that I couldn’t see with my eyes.
I suggest anyone with this kind of red dot light thing to order a couple from AliExpress for like a buck or so and keep them. You never know when you’ll need them plus they’re really tiny and will not take any space.
I would like to thank everyone who helped with this post I truly appreciate it.
