unless I find a better option I will use either a stepper motor driven bicycle chain /with an encoder for distance , it will be also be the same mount that will move my cutter so after alignment one encoder should maintain equal measurements for both the laser and the cutter head for ease of calculations. I know I can use that set up for positioning the cutter head. So I would tell the arduino to enter a measuring mode and the mount would, hopefully position at a preset start point then travel the length of the work piece as the work piece is spinning. Read the whole piece and export the reading to the arduino for reading the lowest and highest points then export those numbers to the variables in my program for the rest of the cuts.