Here's a $20 LASER alignment tool I just completed. It's extremely accurate, easy to build, and best of all, cheap! I actually made mine for about $15 in two days (most of that time spent waiting for the epoxy to dry), but I had the mirror already on hand. I'm not the fist person to come up with this idea, but several of the other instructions I saw had much more expensive and elaborate setups, like using 3D printers and such.
Materials List:
$10 adjustable LASER gun sight with picatinny mount from Amazon
$5 angle aluminum 3/4" x 12" x 1/16" x 36" from hardware store
$4 mirror from thrift store.
$1 celebratory beer or soda
Tools List:
JB Weld
File or rough grit sand paper
Clamps
Rotary tool with metal cutting disks
Carpenter's square or framer's square
Rotating circular tray
Basically you just cut angle aluminum with a rotary tool to make each part. The lengths are up to you. I didn't measure anything. Then sand down the parts you want to epoxy (to get rid of the oxidation and provide for a better bond), epoxy and clamp them, and wait over night. I did it over two days because I couldn't fit all of the clamps on the joints all at once.
First you make the base. It's just an "X" with a channel cut out of the lip for the top piece to rest flat on the bottom piece. Now, since the top piece is raised off the ground by the thickness of the bottom piece, you cut two more small pieces of angle aluminum to shim them so it rests flat. Remember to sand down the oxide layer just before applying the Epoxy.
Next you do the vertical post. I had to plunge cut a small slot into short lip side of the vertical post for the laser sight to attach to. You can see it in the pictures. You can also see that the aluminum was a bit too thin to hold the LASER firmly in my case. If that happens to you, drink your celebratory soda or beer prematurely (and wait if you need to because you're going to need sobriety on your side for the rest of these steps) and cut out a small shim of aluminum and wrap it around the vertical post, through the slot you just plunge cut. Epoxy and clamp it down. Align the vertical post 90 degrees from the base using a carpenter's or framer's square, and epoxy and clamp it down. Once the epoxy has all cured, attach the LASER and adjust it. You adjust it by placing the completed alignment tool on the rotating circular tray, place both on level ground, center the LASER over the center of the tray and rotate it while shining the LASER at the ceiling. From there you just use the adjustment screws to align the LASER so that as it rotates around, the point on the ceiling doesn't move.
To use it, just install the small thrift store mirror into the slot where the negative carrier goes, and place the LASER tool on the board below the enlarger head. Adjust the enlarger until the LASER beam bounces off the mirror and perfectly aligns with the hole in the LASER. Now, if you didn't before, drink your celebratory soda/beer!
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