mirror/lens alignment with 650nm laser - questions

[jblakes34]

Hi all,
I'm new to the forum here. I just ordered a Reci 80 watt tube, 5mW 650nm red laser, power supply, amp meter, mirrors, lens, laser head, etc., from lightobject. I want to mount it all on my gantry style machine that I built. I am trying to find out how and where to mount the red laser. I see that on commercial laser cutters the red laser shows through where the cut is going to be. I assume this is also used to align the mirrors and lens. Can anyone tell me if the red laser is mounted to the front of the CO2 tube, or where is it mounted?

I'm also wondering how one manually adjusts the power output on the power supply. I spoke to Jain at Lightobject, and he said he thinks I need a potentiometer, but he wasn't sure what value I need.

One other thing I'm curious about is, what is the laser beam combiner lens, and do I need that for my setup. I am trying to cut very thin 0.15 mm abalone laminate.

Thanks for any help.

jb