Tesla wrote:So how would that work, would the laser beam that's stationary have to become mobile ? I'm looking for a 2x4 table. Circled in red.
Basically the idea is that you'd mount the tube along the length of that top axis so that it'd move when the top axis moves. On the end the beam emerges from, you'd place two 90° mirrors to make the beam turn 180° and move beside the laser tube (but in the opposite direction). The Z mirror and lens would look the same.
I tried making one with a little more than 3'x3' travel, and like Bart said above, I could never get it square, even after a bunch of design revisions. The smallest vibration, tilt, or skew makes it impossible to align. It's even hard finding a table actually flat enough to have it aligned on, and if you ever move the unit, you have to align it again. I wish I'd done the moving-tube-on-the-top-axis initially, it'd have saved a bunch of work and heartache.
best of luck!
Peter