Archivist Quill Kit Plans vs. Archivist Book Scanner Plans?

[cday]

Please note that my previous post above has been edited in some details.

I plan to elaborate later on a seemingly promising way to support a 100º book cradle using standard heavy duty 90º brackets...

[Doranwen]

Please note that my previous post above has been edited in some details.

I plan to elaborate later on a seemingly promising way to support a 100º book cradle using standard heavy duty 90º brackets...

I look forward to seeing that! (And showing it to my brother.) I haven't built anything yet. I'm hoping to assemble a shopping list for sometime next month, as I think most of the parts I can probably just walk into a hardware store and come out with them. It's the stuff I *can't* do that with that's a real question.

As far as acrylic goes, I did note there is a Michael's in my town. So if that's something they'd carry, I might check that out…

[cday]

The following illustration shows a possible way of constructing a book cradle for a 100º platen using standard 90º angle brackets:

Angle brackets 100º.png (10.35 KiB) Viewed 185 times

A single spacer block raises both angle brackets by the same amount, and allows the right-hand bracket and attached book baseboard to slide to the right as needed to allow different thickness books to be accommodated.

For 4" size angle brackets the calculated height of the spacer board to give 100º angle is slightly less than 1/2", if needed thinner board could be raised to the required height using thin sheets of any suitable material, fine adjustment if necessary could be made using the thin pvc sheets sold in different thicknesses in model supplies stores, multiple layers of the same thickness enabling fine adjustment.

In David Landin's design the position of the right-hand bracket is fixed after adjustment using electrical terminal blocks, which I think should be readily available in the U.S. although I think his name of 'choc boxes' is not the correct name. But the brackets could also be fixed in position using a bar across the base, as used on the left side, either alternative mounting holes for different positions or spacer sheets could be used for adjustment.

Hopefully the above design enables a 100º platen to be easily constructed using readily available components, allowing standard rather than anti-reflective acrylic to be used without unwanted reflections, but as I am not familiar with all the details of David's design please check for full compatibility. In the spacer thickness calculation 4" brackets were used purely for illustrative purposes, I'm not sure what size David finally recommended.

I have been looking into the availability of acrylic in the U.S. and will post separately on that when I have time.

[dpc]

In the end, it's far more important that the platen panes be 100 deg apart compared to the angle of the cradle. You can make a 90 deg cradle and then put a stick or dowel under the spine of the book to raise it slightly to better match the 100 deg angle of the platen.

I think what you want is ACRYLITE P-99 Non-Glare Clear acrylic sheet. Here's some on eBay that's cheap.

[cday]

I think what you want is ACRYLITE P-99 Non-Glare Clear acrylic sheet. Here's some on eBay that's cheap.

That is indeed a good price, shipping not included though, 3/16" rather than 1/8" acrylic, I'm not sure if that could be significant, and I'm not sure whether one sheet would be large enough for both pieces? At that price, and no impact on shipping, probably might as well buy two sheets anyway.

One thing to watch on eBay is that some attractively priced items are shipped from China, likely long delay until arrives and a distinct possibility of customs and possibly carrier's charges, so be warned and certainly only buy from a business with very good feedback.

In the end, it's far more important that the platen panes be 100º apart compared to the angle of the cradle. You can make a 90º cradle and then put a stick or dowel under the spine of the book to raise it slightly to better match the 100º angle of the platen.

The point of using 100º angle was to avoid the need to use anti-reflective acrylic?? But of course, if the final price is right that is perhaps less important, although there could be some albeit maybe very slight loss of sharpness. But is there a good reason for using a 100º platen with anti-reflective acrylic? And if you do you use a 100º platen, why not use a 100º cradle if the design outlined above works?

One thing I'm not sure about is which side of anti-reflective acrylic, if it is used, should in contact with the book pages? I think I read on an acrylic supplier's website that in a picture frame the matte side should be against the picture, would that be applicable in a scanner? I was assuming perhaps incorrectly that with a 90 degree platen light was reflected from the upper surface? I don't know if David Landin mentions that in his updated 2015 Instructables article where he mentions switching to using anti-reflective?

[cday]

Following my posts yesterday here are my thoughts on sourcing acrylic sheet.

One obvious source is businesses offering picture framing services: there are at least one or two in the Seattle area and I am attaching a link below just as a start. Picture framers, or whatever they term themselves, can be expected to offer both standard and anti-reflective acrylic, and should be able to supply pieces cut to size, however the one I looked at seemed fairly expensive and, whether due to Covid-19 or general policy, do not currently allow collection, so add $19 for shipping. As there are no doubt similar businesses all around the U.S. there would currently be no obvious advantage in using a local business.

Another possible source as mentioned above is eBay, in general an excellent source for many parts that can't easily be sourced locally. However, from my quick search most listings are for fixed sizes which may not be easily usable. And as mentioned, it is best to be alert for listings from businesses in China for the practical reasons that shipping may be very slow, and there may well be unknown extra charges for customs and shipper handling.

The next possible source, in principle, would be businesses that are plastic stockists and typically supply plastics for industrial uses, however those businesses are likely to be quite large and to have a minimum order value, although there is no harm asking especially if the business is local. There might however be a small chance they could suggest one of their smaller local customers who is buying the acrylic you need.

A further possible source in principle would be a business that buys suitable acrylic sheet for its own probably manufacturing business, but they are likely to be hard to find, although if you chance on one which is a small business they might be helpful, maybe even have suitable off-cuts.

But the most promising source I think would be sign makers, they typically supply signs to small business and are likely to be everywhere, maybe even one or two on the Olympia Peninsular, if there would be enough customers there. Being generally small businesses themselves and used to small orders, they should be easy to approach and deal with, and might well be willing to supply pieces cut to size at a good price. I'm not sure what thickness they wold normally stock but I imagine a reasonable range, however they quite possibly might not stock anti-reflective acrylic. If Yellow Pages is still published in paper form that should be a good place to start, otherwise an online search would be necessary. You might first check how those businesses are typically named to aid any searches.

Some assorted links from a quick search:

SeattleOnCanvas.com - Home

SeattleOnCanvas.com - Acrylic sheets

Tapplastics.com

PortPlastic.com

Those are just a few links from a quick initial search last week, lots of scope for more searchs if needed.

[Doranwen]

Our Internet has been working better in the last few days so I did a search and there IS a sign making business here in my town. So I will send them an email (their website has that option) and see what they say.

The Instructable says "3mm thick acrylic measuring 22cm x 35cm" in the text, but the initial bit at the top says "each side of the platen measuring 28 cm x 35 cm" - I'm assuming that since the rest of the sizes of the parts are made to match the latter, that I'm going for 3mm thick acrylic that's 28 cm by 35 cm for each of the two sheets… I think he did two versions, one smaller and later one larger, and that may have been a leftover set of numbers from the smaller version?

The only other thing I'm trying to figure out is if I use smartphones (as someone suggested in the cameras section where I posted about it - said these days smartphones with a scanning app are just as good or better than any cameras, at least for this sort of purpose), how to attach them to the rig. The design has camera mounts, but I'd need something that would either grip each side of the smartphone, or if affixing a popsocket or whatever to the back of them, grip that… I sent my brother an email about that the other day but he's been too busy to respond yet.

[dpc]

... but I'd need something that would either grip each side of the smartphone,...

Smartphone Tripod Mount

[Doranwen]

Nice - I sent that to my brother. He replied back today suggesting a flexible arm thing but he linked to something that wouldn't grip smartphones so I'm wondering if he was just illustrating a general idea. We'll see what he says next.

He replied back regarding the platen angle:

"On the 100° cradle, I think it's certainly possible to create. I would want a protractor, but working together we could get the angle brackets to get to 40° & 140°. And I had an idea for the adjustment method for different size books. If we drilled little holes in the base plate, and used movable pegs, it would be just like adjusting for the shelves on your bookcases. Of course, in this case, the holes would be much closer. They could even be non linear to get them closer, since they would just have to catch the angle brackets somewhere. Something like 1/8" diameter, 1" long metal pegs would do it. Even 3/4" long would work fine."

I'm not sure I follow everything he said, but he seems to have ideas…

[cday]

"On the 100° cradle ... I had an idea for the adjustment method for different size books. If we drilled little holes in the base plate, and used movable pegs, it would be just like adjusting for the shelves on your bookcases. Of course, in this case, the holes would be much closer. They could even be non linear to get them closer, since they would just have to catch the angle brackets somewhere. Something like 1/8" diameter, 1" long metal pegs would do it. Even 3/4" long would work fine."

On that detail, in David Landin's design the left-hand book cradle brackets rests against an MDF bar screwed to the movable board mounted on the draw runners, depending on the thickness of that board possibly screwed from below. In his design on the right side he used the electrical terminal blocks, which he found satisfactory with 90º brackets. You could try that with 100º brackets if you wish, otherwise I was thinking that a similar MDF (or whatever) bar could be used, if necessary screwed from below, either screwed into alternative holes for reasonably quick adjustment, or alternatively a fixed bar set at the maximum anticipated width, with spacers (either of different widths, or variable in number) between the fixed bar and the edges of the 100º brackets, which could be changed very quickly.

Your brother's suggestion of insertable pins would be another possibility provided the movable board on which the book cradle rests is thick enough for secure fitting, but using insertable pins to restrain a fixed bar as on the left side might work better, and would only require two pins rather than four for the two brackets. [Edited].

A detail at this point, but it is probably easiest to comment on details as they come up.