cannot transform laser using laser_assembler

edit

I've successfully used laser_assembler to convert laser scans to pointclouds. However, when viewing the concatenated clouds in rviz they are not de-rotated (projected) accordingly with the fixed frame I've chosen. Pictures:

initially (laser is started):

After moving the LiDAR around:

Even though octomap progresses correctly in terms of absolute position (x,y,z), it strikes out when it comes to the angles.

Launch file:

<launch>

  <node pkg="laser_assembler" type="laser_scan_assembler" output="screen"  name="laser_scan_assembler">
    <param name="tf_cache_time_secs" type="double" value="10.0" />
    <param name="max_scans" type="int" value="400" />
    <param name="ignore_laser_skew" type="bool" value="true" />
    <param name="fixed_frame" type="string" value="base_link" />
  </node>

  <node pkg="laser_assembler" type="periodic_snapshotter" output="screen"  name="periodic_snapshotter"/>

  <node pkg="IMUEstimate" type="IMUEstimate" name="IMUEstimate" />

  <node pkg="octomap_server" type="octomap_server_node" name="octomap_server">
    <param name="resolution" value="0.05" />
    <param name="latch" value="false" />
    <!--param name="base_frame_id" value="base_link" /-->

    <!-- fixed map frame (set to 'map' if SLAM or localization running!) -->
    <param name="frame_id" type="string" value="map" />

    <!-- maximum range to integrate (speedup!) -->
    <param name="sensor_model/max_range" value="10.0" />

    <!-- data source to integrate (PointCloud2) -->
    <remap from="cloud_in" to="/assembled_cloud2_out" />

  </node>

</launch>

I've tried every possible combination of fixed_frame and frame_id for laser_assembler and octomap respectively, but the result is always the same, either I get a 2D or a 3D octomap that gets rotated by the laser's unprojected frame. I've even pulled in pcl_ros and modified the periodic_snapshotter to transform the resulting pointcloud but no cigar. Here is the code for your review. I tried all combinations possible for the transforms so it's nothing about that (the rest of periodict_snapshotter.cpp is the same):

    // Make the service call
if (client_.call(srv)) {
    tf::StampedTransform localTransform;

    try {
        listener_.lookupTransform("scanmatcher_frame", "map",
                                  ros::Time(0), localTransform);
    }
    catch (tf::TransformException &ex)
    // If the tf listener cannot find the transform, print an error and continue
    {
        ROS_ERROR("Error: %s", ex.what());
    }

    // Transform the point cloud from the map_world frame into the base_footprint frame
    sensor_msgs::convertPointCloudToPointCloud2(srv.response.cloud, initialCloud2);
    pcl_ros::transformPointCloud("map", localTransform, initialCloud2,
                                 transformedCloud2);
    ROS_INFO("Published Cloud with %u points",
             (uint32_t)(srv.response.cloud.points.size()));
    transformedCloud2.header.frame_id = "map";
    pub_.publish(transformedCloud2);
}

Any ideas? I feel like I'm super closed but I just don't know what's going on.

UPDATE, here is my tf tree: