What happens when you add a $40 Laser and $10 helping hands to a drill press?

After having to drill a bunch of circuit boards, i came to the conclusions that there had to be a better way to perform target practice. So i ordered a laser pointer and dug out an old broken set of helping hands. The helping hands were really helping this time.

Unfortunately i did not document this as i went, but thought i'd share it anyway. And since i had too much text for a slide show, i decided to go this way.

Update: I actually just looked at the receipt for the Laser pointer and stand corrected. I got 2 of them for $30 at ThinkGeek. I still have the second one laying around waiting to be mischievous.

Step 1: Dimming the Laser

The Laser point was a bit too big and bright for what i was trying to do, so i cut the housing, mended it with epoxy and reconnected it with a resistor. The end of the helping hands connect to the clip that was on the laser pen. The tie strap that sticks out is left slightly loose and is used to depress the switch by turning it a bit. The tie straps around it are pulled tight and are there to keep the switching strap in place.

Step 2: Aiming

Here's another angle showing the clip a little better.

Before drilling, the pointer needs to be aimed at where the drill bit will come down.
It needs to be calibrated so to speak.