Planters, before throwing any cash at it just try setting up a pair of diodes using any old lenses you have lying about and knifing in the focus. PCX or cylinder it doesn't matter, principle is the same.
As I (and it seems Kiyoukan) found out, what happens inside the focus area gets magnified out again after the last objective and it doesn't overlap as well as you would think. For example, try knifing two beams at the focus point and if the gap between the beams is, say 10% of the beam diameter, that remains so as they re-collimate and you end up gaining nothing. They do not overlap as you would imagine..
Adjust them so they overlap as they exit the final objective results in a split beam far field with 10% gap between spots, to make them a single spot far field results in a pair of side-by side beams with a 10% gap between them near field.
Divergence shifts that 10% gap about a bit, but you get my drift.
A little bit werrrr, a little bit weyyyyyy, a little bit arrrrgggghhh